The Sa v iour'S Conver ts. 




I 

! 



THE 

Saviour's Converts 



* 



THE 

SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS 



WHAT WE OWE TO THEM, AND HOW 
WE MAY AID THEM 



AUTHOR OF 

44 Pray for the Holy Spirit," "These Little Ones," etc, 



" We cannot but think that this whole subject of the spiritual care, nurture, 
and training of young disciples, deserves to be more fully considered, and 
practically to be brought into far greater prominence." — Ray Palmer. 



BY THE 




REV. WILLIAM SCRIBNER 



tJY SI- 




NEW YORK 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
743 and 745 Broadway 
1880 



of Cgnqriss 



Copyright by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. 
1880. 



Trow's 

Printing and Bookbinding Company, 
201-213 East 12th Street^ 

NEW YORK. 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



HIS little book was written not so much 



to call the attention of the Church to the 
duty of which it treats, as for the purpose of 
deepening the interest which all Christians 
take in converts, and of inciting the members 
of our churches to increased efforts to benefit 
them. There are portions of the volume, as 
the third and fourth chapters, which the writer 
ventures to hope may be read with profit by 
the convert himself. 




CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 



Converts — The Holy Spirit's Agency— Revivals— The Re- 
ligious Experience of Converts. I 

CHAPTER II. 
Inducements which should stimulate the People of God to 

engage in the Work of helping Converts 32 

CHAPTER III. 
Some of the doctrinal Truths which the Convert should be 
assisted to apprehend clearly, in order that he may 
have a healthy Religious Experience, and also grow in 
Grace 64 

CHAPTER IV. 
Some of the Christian's Duties, Difficulties, Privileges, and 
Activities, in regard to which the Convert needs to be 
Instructed 104 

CHAPTER V. 
From the earliest Times special Attention has been given 

by the Church to Catechizing the Young 154 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



CONVERTS—THE HOLY SPIRITS AGENCY—REVIVALS 
—THE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE OP CONVERTS. 



HE vigor of the spiritual life, and the 



strength of the faith of some converts, 
have attracted the attention of the whole 
Church. Not all those who in primitive times 
suffered tortures and death rather than deny 
the Saviour were mature Christians. Many of 
them were converts. It is interesting to know 
this. In various periods, and in many places 
where the standard of the cross has been 
planted, the Church has had her martyrs, and 
of these none have been more steadfast than 
new disciples. Young maidens like Blandina, 
mere boys like Ponticus, cheerfully, nay tri- 




2 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



umphantly, bore tortures rather than deny their 
Lord. Churches established in our own times 
by the labors of missionaries have often been 
severely persecuted, but none of the members 
of these churches have endured persecution at 
the hands of their heathen countrymen with 
greater constancy than young converts. 

But although piety and devotion to the Saviour 
and His cause have been very remarkable in the 
case of many converts, yet it is not to be ex- 
pected that, as a general rule, young disciples 
will be strong and well established in the faith. 
They greatly need the sympathy and assistance 
of their brethren who are more advanced, and 
it is our design in writing this little book to in- 
cite our readers to do all in their power to aid 
them. 

Some are of opinion that of the number who 
have recently begun the Christian course only 
those born outside of the Church can, with strict 
propriety of speech, be called converts. They 
doubt whether those should be considered ac- 
cessions to the Church who are born and bred 
within her pale. We intend, however, to apply 
the word converts to all who have only been the 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



3 



professed followers of the Saviour for a short 
time, whether, as children of the covenant, they 
were born within the visible Church, or whether 
they had been outside of the Church until they, 
in their own persons, professed repentance and 
faith. Many belonging to this latter class are 
old in years, while considered as members of 
the Saviour's Church they are young. " I am 
just four years old," said a man of fourscore, as 
he leaned on his hoe in the garden. "Four 
years ago I began to serve God, and then I be- 
gan to live." 

We wish in this chapter to show briefly, I. 
That it belongs to the Holy Spirit alone to 
make converts. 2. That although none are 
true converts except those whom the Holy 
Spirit has made such, many regard themselves 
as converts who have never been the subjects 
of the Spirit's saving work, and who are there- 
fore self-deceived. 3. That souls may be con- 
verted, and are in fact constantly converted, at 
other times than in revivals. But 4. That count- 
less numbers of converts are the fruits of revi- 
vals. And 5. That different converts vary as 
to their exercises. 



4 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



I . It belongs to the Holy Spirit alone to make 
converts. 

This will be evident, in the first place, when 
we consider that it is by being regenerated that 
one becomes a convert, that is, turns from sin 
unto God, and that regeneration is that instan- 
taneous change from spiritual death to spiritual 
life of which the soul is the subject when the 
Holy Spirit creates it anew by a single exertion 
of His power. 

If no soul ever turns from sin unto God, and 
exercises faith in the Saviour, until it is regen- 
erated, while turning from sin unto God cer- 
tainly follows regeneration, then if regeneration 
is the sole and exclusive act of the Holy Spirit, 
converts can only be made such by the Holy 
Spirit. 

Some, however, deny that regeneration is the 
sole and exclusive act of the Holy Spirit. They 
reject the doctrine that the natural state of man 
since the fall is one of total spiritual death, and 
consequently they maintain that the influence 
by which men are regenerated is a mere sua- 
sion. These persons contend that the whole 
work of the Spirit in our regeneration consists 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



5 



in His exerting an influence on our minds by 
the presentation of truth and motives. Regen- 
eration being thus affected by moral suasion — 
by the moral power of the truth in the hands 
of the Spirit, the truth co-operates with the 
Spirit in the regenerating act, as also does the 
soul which yields to the influence of this moral 
power. 

The Scriptural doctrine, however, is that 
raising a soul from spiritual death to spiritual 
life is the act of God's omnipotent agency. It 
is effected by the mighty power of God. So 
says the Apostle in Eph. i. 17-19. He tells the 
Ephesians that they had been quickened — re- 
generated — new created by the very power 
which wrought in Christ when God raised Him 
from the dead. This is only one passage out 
of many w T hich teach that regeneration is a 
change which the Holy Spirit's power alone 
can accomplish. 

Let it not be forgotten that we are now 
speaking of regeneration. It is admitted that in 
conversion (z. e. t in the turning of the soul from 
sin unto God) and in exercising faith, which are 
the effects of regeneration, and imply it, the 



6 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS, 



soul is active and co-operates with the Divine 
Spirit. Faith, we say, implies regeneration, but 
no man is for that reason excusable for refusing 
to believe in Christ until he knows that he is 
regenerated. To obey the gospel call (and to 
believe in Jesus is to obey the gospel call), is 
the immediate duty of all who hear that call. 
All who when they hear the call obey it as the 
jailer of Philippi did, are saved. Paul said to 
him, i. e. 9 the gospel call to him was, u Believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved.'' Had he rejected Christ thus offered to 
him he would have been conscious that he did 
it voluntarily and deliberately. When the be- 
liever looks back upon the years of his impeni- 
tency, he mourns that he so long and so con- 
stantly rejected the blessed Saviour. He knows 
that he did it deliberately and freely. He 
knows, indeed, that the sin is now forgiven by 
Him whom he rejected, but that does not re- 
move his sorrow for it and he does not forgive 
himself. The unrenewed in Christian lands are 
living in this sin, but they are conscious that 
they are not forced to reject Christ — that they 
do it of their own free will. Instead of feeling 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



7 



that they are not accountable in the matter, 
they know that they reject the Saviour as 
free agents, and that they are justly condemn- 
ed because they love darkness rather than 
light. 

Thus it is seen that the Holy Spirit alone 
can make a convert, because He alone regen- 
erates the soul. 

But, secondly, there is another way in which 
the affirmation can be shown to be true. 

If we should say that a Christian is one who 
has passed from a state of spiritual death to a 
state of spiritual life, who has been created 
anew by the regenerating act of the Holy 
Spirit, who has undergone a transformation of 
nature so as to be in some degree holy, as God 
is holy, we should assert what is true, and yet 
this is not a full description of a Christian. Nor 
would a Christian be fully described if we 
should add to this that he is one, who having 
received spiritual life, has turned with grief and 
hatred of his sin unto God. When we explain 
what we mean by a Christian, we do indeed 
affirm these things of him, but we feel that our 
representation is incomplete unless we describe 



8 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



him as one who worships, loves, trusts, and 
obeys the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Now, a convert does not differ from any 
other Christian except in this, that he has only 
been a Christian a short time, and is therefore 
immature. The spiritual life and the spiritual 
perceptions of a convert are precisely the same 
as to their nature as those of all Christians, and 
he has, as the object of his adoration and trust, 
the same blessed Saviour. 

No one is a convert unless he has begun to 
see Jesus to be the chief among ten thousands, 
to apprehend the glory of God in the face of 
Jesus, to discern His divine loveliness, to rest 
upon Him, love Him, trust in Him, worship 
Him, and serve Him. 

But not a soul in the universe can thus know, 
trust, love, and follow Jesus of itself. Only the 
Holy Spirit can take of the things of Christ 
and show them into the soul, and therefore 
those only can be converts who are made such 
by the Spirit of God. 

To the natural man the Lord Jesus is as a 
root out of a dry ground, one in whom there is 
no form nor comeliness. It is as true of the 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



9 



Saviour now as it was in the apostle's days, 
that He is disallowed indeed of men, but chosen 
of God and precious.* Only to those who are 
the subjects of the work of the Holy Spirit can 
these words be addressed with any meaning : 
''That the trial of your faith, being much more 
precious than of gold that perisheth, though it 
be tried with fire, might be found unto praise 
and honor and glory at the appearing of 
Jesus Christ : whom having not seen, ye love ; 
in whom, though now ye see him not, yet 
believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and 
full of glory. " f Let it never be forgotten, then, 
that poor, lost, blind, perishing sinners, though 
richly deserving eternal punishment for their 
sins, and especially for the sin of rejecting 
Christ, can never be made true converts except 
by the Holy Spirit. 

2. Although none are really converts, except 
those whom the Holy Spirit has made such, 
many regard themselves as converts who have 
never been the subjects of the Spirifs saving 
work, and who are therefore self-deceived. 



* I Pet. ii. 4. 



f 1 Pet. i 7. 



IO 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



Our Lord, in His parable of the sower> pre- 
sents to us a class of hearers of the Word who, 
under the common operations of the Spirit, ex- 
ercise a temporary faith, which, however, is 
only temporary, and who even receive the 
Word with joy. The faith which they exer- 
cise, and which has the appearance of being 
genuine, not only produces joy, but, for a while, 
seems to produce other effects of a saving be- 
lief, for they do many things, discharge their 
religious duties with alacrity, and even practise 
severe self-denial with cheerfulness. It is no 
matter for surprise, however, that this class of 
hearers fall away, for they are like the seed 
which had no root, of which our Saviour 
speaks in His parable, and which, therefore, 
notwithstanding that it sprung up at first with 
every appearance of health and vigor, was 
scorched as soon as the sun reached his meri- 
dian. 

What is described in our Saviour's parable 
has always been, and is still going on, especi- 
ally, perhaps, in seasons of revival. You will 
see many who, having attended to the presen- 
tation of the Word, are brought under convic- 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



1 1 



tion. They feel the power of the truth be- 
cause their conscience is aroused and enlight- 
ened, and yields to the truth an irresistible 
assent. Their conviction terminates in a hope 
of acceptance, and this hope produces joy. 
But their outward duties which they begin to 
practise — their new mode of life — ere long be- 
comes burdensome. By degrees they relax 
their efforts, and finally become like those who 
have never made any profession. The secret 
of their falling away is that they never had any 
true grace existing in their hearts. Their faith 
is not that which is exercised by a soul truly 
renewed. It is not founded on the illumina- 
tion of the Holy Spirit; it is founded only on 
the assent of an awakened conscience, No 
wonder these hearers are unable to withstand 
the world's temptations. 

The thorny-ground hearers present us with 
still another class of self-deceived converts. 
They are the apparent converts who speedily 
become steeped in the cares, the riches, and 
the pleasures of this life. The world, in some 
one of its forms, absorbs their whole attention 
and thus destroys the influence of the truth 



12 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS, 



which had begun to affect their hearts, just as 
the thorns in our Saviour's parable sprung up 
with the seed, choked it, and so prevented it 
from bringing forth fruit. 

When self-deceived converts, such as the 
thorny-ground and stony-ground hearers, are 
spoken of as falling away, or going back to the 
world, it is not meant that they certainly be- 
come immoral in their lives, or that they always 
forsake the house of God. They may continue 
to be steady attendants on the preaching of the 
Word, and they may ever be found in their 
places at the Lord's table. But they may 
properly be said to fall away if they relapse 
into a state of carnal security, and if during the 
remainder of their lives they attend to their 
religious duties as a matter of form, and with- 
out any relish for them. Nor is it meant that 
their case is necessarily hopeless. Would their 
pastors and the other church officers, and also 
all their fellow communicants, with tender solici- 
tude, watch over them as our Lord requires all 
church members to watch over each other, 
they might yet be converted, although their 
case may seem discouraging in consequence of 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



their having gone so far as to join the Church 
while in an unconverted state. 

The danger of self-deception is not suffi- 
ciently dwelt upon by ministers of the gospel, 
and yet how many professors, without any in- 
tention to appear what they are not, are only 
Christians in name, have never experienced the 
new birth, and are still dead in trespasses and 
sins ! That those who seek admission into the 
visible Church are in great danger of deceiving 
themselves, and that many already in the 
Church remain in delusion, and at last perish, 
is apparent from the alarming declarations of 
Christ in Matt. vii. 21-23. 

Many self-deceived professors think that they 
have good reason to be satisfied that all is well 
with them on this ground, viz., that the officers 
of the church upon examining them at the time 
of their admission, judged them to be true 
Christians. They do not consider that those 
who are appointed to receive persons into the 
visible Church never pretend to feel certain 
that those whom they receive as Church mem- 
bers are true believers. They admit that they 
have no power to read the heart, and to tell 



14 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



what is going on within the soul of another. 
The truth is they are required by Christ to 
receive into the Church all applicants who pro- 
fess to exercise faith in Jesus, whose profession 
is credible. They are never to be considered 
as passing any judgment on the validity of the 
evidence given by the applicant. Let no 
Church member then rest his assurance that he 
is a true Christian on the favorable opinion of 
his case, formed by the church office bearers at 
the time of his admission. 

We are not to ascribe that conviction of sin 
and enlightenment of conscience, and tempo- 
rary faith with its accompanying joy, which we 
often witness in spurious converts to the mere 
power of the truth. Even those exercises of 
soul which are not of a holy nature, much as 
they resemble the religious exercises of the 
regenerated, would never have any existence 
but for that influence of the Spirit usually 
called common grace which attends the truth 
wherever it is proclaimed, and which, in a 
greater or less measure, is granted to all who 
hear the word. 

As long as the heart is deceitful, and Satan is 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



busy, and church officers are unable to read 
the heart, there will always be additions to the 
Church of unconverted persons, but these addi- 
tions would be less frequent than they are 
were all pastors skilful and diligent in warning 
their hearers as to the danger of indulging false 
hopes, and in explaining to them the nature of 
true religion. Many have felt that there is 
often too great haste in admitting the hope- 
fully converted to sealing ordinances. Says the 
late Dr. Spencer, in his " Pastor Sketches:" 
" Admission to the sealing ordinances of the 
Church, especially in times of revival, is a point 
of no little danger. Our ministers and churches 
have too often erred on this point. It seems 
to be too often forgotten that then the popular 
feeling tends into the Church. Fashion is that 
way, and sympathy that w r ay, and all the com- 
mon influences which the young are particu- 
larly likely to feel tend to urge them forward 
in the same direction. Far better would it be 
for the purity of the Church, and for the com- 
fort and salvation of individuals, if some few 
months were allowed to pass before the hopefully 
converted were received into the communion." 



1 6 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 

As to unconverted persons who are already 
communicants, if more faithful efforts were put 
forth to save even tkem, such efforts would 
doubtless be attended with the happiest re- 
sults. 

The distinguished servant of Christ, from 
whose work the above quotation is made, was 
a model pastor in regard to the duty of watch- 
ing over those who had already joined the 
Church. Speaking of certain members of his 
church over whom his heart yearned, and for 
whom he felt a deep solicitude lest they had 
become communicants without having been 
truly converted, he says : " I afterwards sought 
out every one of them, and alone they opened 
their hearts to me," and the happiest results, 
as we are led to infer, rewarded his faithfulness 
to these members. 

He adds, " But it is a very difficult and labori- 
ous thing for a minister to deal with such 
cases. But he ought to deal with them. He 
will seldom labor in vain ; and while engaged 
in this field of duty he is engaged in the best 
field of study. His work then lies nearest his 
heart, and he cannot fail to know the human 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



17 



heart more accurately, and learn how to apply 
the powers of his mind, and the truth of God to 
souls ready to perish. ,, 

3. Souls may be converted \ and are in fact 
constantly converted^ at other times than in sea- 
sons of revival. 

If by a revival we mean a great and sudden 
multiplication of believers — the simultaneous 
conversion of many persons, then, of course, it is 
not through revivals that the children of the 
covenant come into the visible Church. 

But setting aside the children of believers, 
immense numbers come from the world into 
the Church at other times than in revivals. 
The conversion of many is spoken of in the 
Bible who were not brought into the Church 
during periods of revival, as the conversion of 
Zaccheus the publican ; of the woman who 
washed the Saviour's feet with tears ; of the 
thief crucified with our blessed Saviour ; of 
Cornelius, the Roman centurion ; of Lydia ; of 
the Eunuch, the treasurer of the Queen of 
Ethiopia ; of Saul of Tarsus, and his com- 
panions, Barnabas, Apollos, Timothy, Titus, 
Aquila and Priscilla, Epaphroditus, Onesemus 



1 8 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



and others. During the centuries that are past, 
and in all countries where the Church has been 
planted, the labors of pastors and private church 
members have been fruitful in the steady quiet 
ingathering of souls without revivals. It can- 
not be denied that this is one of the methods 
of advancing His kingdom, which the Saviour 
chooses to employ. 

And yet some unhesitatingly proclaim that 
revivals are the only or almost the only means 
of promoting religion. This error leads many 
to teach, not only that it depends entirely on 
ourselves whether we enjoy these visitations or 
not — that God would at any time send them, 
were the desire for them sufficiently strong, but 
to appeal to particular passages of Scripture (as 
for example certain prophecies of the Old Testa- 
ment) as containing promises of God to grant 
revivals at any season the petitioner may spe- 
cify. 

When a believer importunately prays that 
God would give His Holy Spirit, he can plead 
numerous express promises that such a prayer 
shall be heard — he is able to present to his 
Heavenly Father this reason why he should 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



19 



grant the request, viz., that there are plain 
promises in the Scriptures to bestow the Holy 
Spirit on all who ask for Him. And in like 
manner when he intercedes for the Saviour's 
Church, or for the world of perishing men, he 
can appeal to explicit assurances given in the 
Bible that prayer for the descent of the Spirit 
upon the Church of God, and upon men, shall 
be answered literally. But there is no promise 
in the Bible that prayer for the descent of the 
Holy Spirit on a particular church at a partic- 
ular time shall meet with a literal answer. It 
is admitted that it is freely permitted us to 
offer such a request if we confide in the Sa- 
viour's love for us, and for His Church, and in 
His willingness to do what will be best for His 
cause. But we can point to no express prom- 
ise that such prayer will inevitably secure the 
help of the Holy Spirit at the time, and in the 
way we specify. For a revival preacher there- 
fore to say to a church : " You will certainly 
have an outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the 
expiration of ten days or a fortnight from now, 
if you will but pray for it," is presumptuous. 
And yet we knew a revival preacher to say 



20 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



this, and to warn the people not to come 
hastily to a conclusion adverse to his predic- 
tion, but to wait till ten days or two weeks 
had expired, and they would certainly see his 
prediction fulfilled. And sometimes revival 
preachers, at the beginning of the protracted 
meetings about to be held, publicly and ostenta- 
tiously thank God for the revival which they 
are certain He will send before the series of 
meetings is concluded. The only proper ob- 
ject of faith is some revelation of God, but it is 
nowhere revealed that it is God's purpose to 
give a particular church a revival at a time the 
petitioner may fix upon, provided that peti- 
tioner's prayer is sincere and oft repeated. 

Errors of this kind men naturally fall into 
who limit the Holy One of Israel to revivals, 
and think that this is the only way in which the 
Saviour's kingdom can be built up. Souls are 
constantly converted at other times than in sea- 
sons of revival. 

It is the happiness of almost every one to 
know faithful pastors whose churches, using 
only the ordinary means of grace, have pros- 
pered and increased by the constant addition 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



21 



of converts. A pastor speaking lately of the 
events of his thirty years' pastorate, said : " Re- 
vivals, technically so called, have not marked 
our history, but we have had long periods of 
ingathering, without greatly multiplying our 
services, and without painful reaction." The 
church of this servant of God, though not vis- 
ited by revivals, has on three different occa- 
sions been able to give away members and 
families to form separate organizations, and 
these are now three flourishing churches. 

We, of course, rejoice to acknowledge what 
is so evident, that it is God's design that the 
work of redemption should be carried on in 
part by means of revivals. Though each par- 
ticular church would, on the whole, prosper 
more by a regular normal increase than by 
violent alternations, yet when we consider the 
masses, the immense fields white already to 
harvest, and when we consider the certainty 
that there are countless multitudes who will 
continue to be neglected, and who will never 
have salvation unless they have it quickly, we 
feel that revivals in our world, powerful works 
of grace, are absolutely necessary. We have 



22 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



only intended to remind the reader, that since 
there are often accessions to the Church when 
there are no revivals, in speaking of the great 
needs of converts in this little book, and in 
endeavoring to awaken a deeper interest in 
them, we do not have exclusive reference to 
those who are added to the Church in revival 
times. But we now add that, 

4. Countless numbers of converts have been 
in times past, and will be in future times the 
fruits of revivals. 

Although not all who lived in the Apostle's 
days were converted in seasons of remarkable 
awakenings, yet we know that three thousand 
of Peter's hearers were on the day of Pente- 
cost thus gathered in. In the primitive age, 
and in what w r e call the reformation period, 
there was a succession of glorious revivals, and 
doubtless it was in these seasons that the prin- 
cipal part of believers then in the world had 
been converted. 

There have been times when it could have 
been said with truth of the larger portion of 
church members in many sections of our own 
country, that they had been brought into the 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



23 



Saviour's kingdom during the progress of re- 
vivals. There are yet to be many such visita- 
tions before the second appearing of our blessed 
Lord. This can be doubted by no one. Re- 
mote, indeed, must be the establishment of our 
dear Lord's kingdom on the ruins of Satan's 
kingdom, unless our poor world is to be fa- 
vored with numerous and powerful effusions of 
the Spirit, resulting in many precious harvests 
of souls. We should desire such precious har- 
vests for all classes, not excluding the depraved 
multitude — the lowest and the vilest. " Could 
Ave unroof the dense portions of our great cities, 
and look into the dens of drink and debauch- 
ery, we should behold undeniable signs of 
wounded spirits, without hope, without God. 
The gospel was made for such, and has saved 
such. Amidst the reiterated and increasing 
prayers which go up for the outpouring of the 
Spirit, surely there ought to be importunate 
supplication for influences to penetrate these 
lowest strata. Awakening is incomplete un- 
less it go deeper, far deeper down than our 
well-dressed throngs. We also crave it for the 
abject and the abandoned. The blind and the 



24 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



vicious, from whose ranks the levies are made 
for riots and prisons, will not flock to the 
preached word until some fresh and irresist- 
ible influence, affecting the whole population, 
find its way to the very scenes of their noctur- 
nal orgies. We can think of nothing more 
likely to compel the attention of blasphemous, 
base, and even violent men. and women, than 
a mighty tide of revival, pressing its repeated 
waves into their miserable homes and hearts. 
Our blessed Lord has taught us that these not 
only need the truth, but are accessible to its 
power. " Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say 
unto you, That the publicans and the harlots 
go into the kingdom of God before you." 

The time is coming when, if the Church is to 
overspread the earth, there will be far more 
glorious revivals than have yet been witnessed, 
and she will be guilty of unspeakable folly un- 
less she endeavors to be prepared for these in- 
gatherings ; and in no way can she be better 
prepared for them than by using every means 
in her power to qualify herself for the work of 
training the converts who are to be the fruits of 
the revivals which are to be sent, and of build- 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



ing them up in the faith. And since powerful 
outpourings of the Spirit will be as much needed 
in future times as in times gone by, it is a mat- 
ter of the utmost importance that all her mem- 
bers avoid every act and every sinful neglect 
which may prove a hindrance to such effusions. 

5. The exercises of soul previously to conver- 
sion, and also subsequently to this great change, 
differ hi different converts. 

Conviction of sin is indeed essentially the 
same in all who are the subjects of it. All 
under conviction feel that they deserve, and are 
exposed to, eternal death, because of their want 
of conformity to God ? s law. They also feel 
that their sinfulness is pollution and renders 
them morally offensive, the objects of disappro- 
bation and abhorrence. In addition to this, 
they see and feel that they are helpless, in that 
they cannot make any atonement for their 
guilt, nor deliver themselves from the domin- 
ion which sin has over them. All true converts 
had this sense of sin, of ill desert, of inward 
pollution, and of helplessness previously to 
their passing from death to life. They have it, 

indeed, afterward and during their whole Chris- 
2. 



26 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS, 



tian course, but then, i. e., after they have ac- 
tually become Christians, it is accompanied 
with an apprehension of God's mercy, through 
Jesus Christ, with a sorrow which is godly and 
holy, and with filial feelings. 

But although conviction of sin is essentially 
the same in all souls awakened, but not yet 
converted, there is discovered also the greatest 
diversity ; the effects of such conviction " being 
modified by the temperament, the knowledge, 
the circumstances, and concomitant exercises of 
those who experience it. A sentence of death 
if passed upon a hundred men would probably 
affect no two alike. The mind of one might 
fasten particularly on the turpitude of his 
crime ; that of another upon the disgrace which 
he had incurred ; that of a third on the suffer- 
ings of his friends on his account ; that of a 
fourth upon the horrors of death, or upon the 
fearfulness of appearing before God. All these 
and many other views in endless combination 
might operate with different degrees of force 
on each, and the result be still further modified 
by their physical and moral temperament, their 
knowledge and previous history. The endless 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



27 



diversity, therefore, in the experience of men 
when convinced of sin, is what might be ex- 
pected." 

Converts also differ among themselves as to 
their experience immediately after coming to 
Christ, and that notwithstanding that the exer- 
cises of piety are always essentially the same. 
''There are doubtless great diversities in the 
appearances of the motions and actings of 
piety in its incipient stages. Some at the time 
of their new birth are brought at once into the 
clear light of day. They are as if introduced 
into a new world. The sun of righteousness 
has risen upon them without an intervening 
cloud. Their perception of divine things is so 
new, and so clear that they feel persuaded that 
they can convince others and cause them to see 
and feel as they do. Such persons can no 
more doubt of their conversion than of their 
existence. " On the other hand the new exer- 
cises of the religious life of others are very 
faint, and yet these latter may eventually far 
exceed in piety and excellence of character 
those who commenced their Christian life with 
more lively religious views and feelings. There 



28 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



is, however, no good reason why those con- 
verts whose souls are richly blessed in the very 
beginning of their Christian course, should 
afterward lose the benefit of their sweet early 
experiences, if they persevere from the first, in 
the earnest and diligent use of the means of 
grace. 

The following is an account of the remarka- 
ble early religious exercises of the great and 
good Dr. Archibald Alexander, whose prog- 
ress in piety was, it cannot be doubted, with- 
out any interruption to the very close of his 
long and useful life: "I read all the religious 
narratives I could procure, and labored much 
to put myself into the state in which others 
described themselves to have been before en- 
joying hope. But all these efforts and desires 
proved abortive, and I began to see much more 
of the wickedness of my own heart than ever 
before. I was distressed and discouraged, and 
convinced that I had placed too much depend- 
ence on mere means, and on my own efforts. 
I therefore determined to give myself inces- 
santly to prayer until I found mercy, or per- 
ished in the pursuit. 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



29 



" This resolution was formed on a Sunday- 
evening. The next morning I took my Bible 
and walked several miles into the dense wood 
of the Bushy Hills, which were then wholly un- 
cultivated. Finding a place that pleased me, at 
the foot of a projecting rock, in a dark valley, 
I began, with great earnestness, the course 
which I had prescribed to myself. I prayed, 
and then read in the Bible, prayed and read, 
prayed and read, until my strength was ex- 
hausted ; for I had taken no nourishment that 
day. But the more I strove the harder my 
heart became, and the more barren was my 
mind of every serious or tender feeling. I 
tasted then some of the bitterness of despair. 
It seemed to be my last resource, and now this 
had utterly failed. I was about to desist from 
the endeavor, when the thought occurred to 
me, that though I was helpless, and my case 
was nearly desperate, yet it would be well to 
cry to God to help me in this extremity. I 
knelt upon the ground and had poured out 
perhaps a single petition, or rather broken cry 
for help, when, in a moment, I had such a view 
of a crucified Saviour, as is without a par- 



30 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS 



allel in my experience. The whole plan of 
grace appeared as plain as day. I was per- 
suaded that God was willing to accept me. just 
as I was, and convinced that I had never before 
understood the freeness of salvation, but had 
always been striving to bring some price in my 
hand, or to prepare myself for receiving Christ. 
Xow I discovered that I could receive Him in 
all his offices at that very moment, which I was 
sure at the time I did. I felt truly a joy which 
was unspeakable and full of glory. How long 
this delightful frame continued I cannot tell. 
But when my affections had a little subsided, I 
opened my Bible and alighted on the eigh- 
teenth and nineteenth chapters of John. The 
sacred page appeared to be illuminated ; the 
truths were new, as if I had never read them 
before ; and I thought it would be always thus. 
Having often thought of engaging in a written 
covenant with God. but having never before 
found a freedom to do so. I now felt no hesi- 
tation, and, having writing materials in my 
pocket, I sat down and penned it exactly from 
my feelings, and solemnly signed it as in the 
presence of God. 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



31 



u I expected now to feel uniformly different 
from what had preceded, and to be always in 
lively emotion, thinking my troubles all at an 
end. As I had been much distressed by dis- 
covering the sins of my heart, and as I had 
read in Scripture that faith works purification, 
I resolved to make this the test. At the time, 
indeed, I had no doubt as to the sincerity of 
my faith ; and in the paper of self-dedication 
above mentioned, I expressed the assurance 
that if I had never before received Christ, 1 did 
then and there receive Him. For several days 
my mind was serene. But before a week had 
elapsed, darkness began to gather over me 
again. Inbred corruption began to stir. In a 
word, I fell back into the same state of dark- 
ness and conflict as before." 

This state of mind continued for some time, 
even after he had made a profession of his 
faith. But, on looking back in after life, he 
expresses his belief that the exercises given 
above were genuine, and that the period of 
darkness that followed those exercises, did not 
prove that he had not been regenerated. 



CHAPTER II. 



INDUCEMENTS WHICH SHOULD STIMULATE THE PEO- 
PLE OF GOD TO ENGA GE IN THE WORK OF HELPING 
CONVERTS. 



ERHAPS you have a dear friend who was 



T* until lately in bondage to sin and Satan, 
but who, in answer to your fervent and impor- 
tunate prayers in his behalf, offered for many 
years, is now a true disciple of Jesus. What 
are your feelings when you think of this friend 
for whose salvation you so earnestly and per- 
severingly prayed ? What are the intense de- 
sires of your soul with reference to him ? Are 
they not that he should steadily grow in the 
divine life, and become stronger and stronger 
to resist evil and to practise all Christian ex- 
cellencies ? And in the efforts which you 
earnestly make to be of service to him, and to 
help him, are not those efforts called forth by 
your knowledge that he is, as yet, weak as a 




THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



33 



Christian, and has many and exceedingly great 
spiritual wants needing attention ? Do you not 
feel that it is enough to induce you to exert 
yourself in his behalf, that he has dangers and 
trials always incident to spiritual infancy, and 
is as yet without that experience and those at- 
tainments which the advanced Christian pos- 
sesses ? Now the graces of all converts are in 
like manner as yet untried, and less developed 
than those of older believers, and on this ac- 
count they all have wants, the neglect of which 
must render their condition perilous. And this 
is a sufficient reason, even should no others be 
mentioned, why Christians who have for years 
been followers of the Saviour, should strive to 
be useful to the Church's converts, should watch 
over, cherish, encourage, warn, and instruct 
them. There are, however, other inducements 
of equal weight, which are, perhaps, less likely 
to be considered. 

I. The Saviour has expressly committed them 
to your care. 

He has committed them to your care by call- 
ing them His brethren. For doubtless, among 
others our blessed Lord will have them in His 



34 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



mind, when at the last day He will say to 
those on His right hand — "Inasmuch as ye 
have done it unto one of the least of these my 
brethren, ye have done it unto me." He has 
committed them to your care by telling you 
also what He has done for them. He tells you 
that He loved them before the world began. 
He tells you that this love constrained Him to 
die for them. He tells you that He has for- 
given all their sins, accepted them, and be- 
stowed upon them a title to everlasting life. 
That He will tenderly watch over them, chas- 
tising them when they wander away from Him, 
and preserving them from falling from grace. 
That He will always intercede for them, and 
will at last receive them unto Himself, where 
they will be where He is, and forever behold 
His glory. And then they will be perfect, full 
of sweetness, purity, and every excellence. 
Christ has committed them to your care also, 
by uniting them to you in the closest of bonds, 
for as He has made you members of His body, 
so He has made them. As the branch is one 
with the vine so are they, in common with you, 
one with Christ. It is as true of them that 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



35 



they are united to Christ by the Holy Spirit's 
indwelling, as it is of you. The Spiritual life 
which dwells in Christ, abides in you no more 
truly than it does in them. 

Moreover, when we consider certain com- 
mands which Christ has given us, we cannot 
but feel that He has committed converts to 
our care. He commands us to deny ourselves 
for the good of our brethren, to bear their 
burdens, to place no stumbling-block in their 
way, to rejoice with them in their seasons of 
joy, and to weep with them in their times of 
sorrow. He commands us further to be kind- 
ly afifectioned to our brethren, to distribute to 
their necessities, to warn and admonish them, 
to walk circumspectly before them, to give 
freely to them of the things which we have 
freely received, to visit them, to pray for them, 
to avoid everything whereby they may stum- 
ble, or be offended, or be made weak, and to 
be especially anxious to do them good because 
they are of the household of faith. In laying 
these commands upon us, our Saviour enjoins 
it upon us to do good to converts, for all con- 
verts are our brethren. 



36 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 

" Hereby perceive we the love of God," says 
the apostle, (> because He laid down His life 
for us : and we ought to lay down our lives for 
the brethren. But whoso hath this world's 
good, and seeth his brother have need, and 
shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, 
how dwelleth the love of God in him?" If we 
prove that we have not the love cf God in us 
when, possessing this world's good?>, we shot 
up our bowels of compassion from a fellow 
Christian in want of temporal supplies, how 
much stronger proof do we furnish of being 
destitute of the love of God when we refuse to 
minister to the spiritual wants of those of cur 
fellow disciples whom our Saviour calls His 
lambs. 

2. You have the example of the ape sties in 
this thing, and of the Church's early laborers. 

There are those who are willing to labor to 
bring unconverted souls into the kingdom of 
Christ, but who do not care about having any- 
thin" mere to do with them afterward. It was 
not so with the great apostle. The tempta- 
tions to which his converts were exposed, the 
tgers which surrounded them, their weak- 



THE SAVIOUR'S COX VERTS. 



57 



ncss of faith and want of stability, as also their 
afflictions and persecutions, deeply affected him 
and filled him with anxiety. To hear of their 
attainments in knowledge and holiness, or of 
any manifestation on their part of love for the 
brethren, or of docility in receiving his teach- 
ings, or of zeal for the Master's cause, awakened 
within him the sincerest joy. He addressed 
none of his letters to unconverted men. Abun- 
dant and successful as were his labors for their 
salvation, it was to immature and inexperienced 
believers — to converts, that most of his letters 
were addressed. For the several churches of 
Corinth. Galatia, Philippi, etc., were, at the time 
of his composing his epistles for them, in the in- 
fancy of their existence. Thus we see the pains 
which the great apostle took to instruct those who 
had but just begun the Christian life. Examine 
his letters and see the fulness, the variety, the 
wisdom, and preciousness of his instructions. 

Of what solid food would Paul's converts 
have been deprived had he not written these 
letters to them ? 

We see the strength and tenderness of Paul's 
love for his converts by the manner in which 



38 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



he speaks of them. He calls them his breth- 
ren, his dearly beloved, his joy and crown. 
The deep interest which he continually felt in 
them may also be seen in what is said of his 
labors for them in the Acts of the Apostles. 
He did not forget those whom he had been in- 
strumental in converting, but revisited them. 
We are told that the hearts of Paul and Barna- 
bas yearned over those who, under their 
preaching, had been converted in Antioch, 
Lystra, and Iconium, and they had left them 
but a short time before they returned to them 
for the purpose of building them up, strength- 
ening their faith, comforting them, and warn- 
ing them of what they had to expect. The 
words are, " They returned again to Lystra, 
and to Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the 
souls of the disciples, and exhorting them 
to continue in the faith, and that we must 
through much tribulation enter into the king- 
dom of God." 

The Antioch here mentioned was the one in 
the province of Pisidia, in Asia Minor. At 
the other Antioch, which w r as the capital of 
Syria, and where the disciples were first called 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS, 



39 



Christians, some of the brethren had been very 
successful in preaching the gospel after they 
had fled to the place from Jerusalem when the 
persecution began there against the Church. 
When the news of these conversions came to 
the Church which was in Jerusalem they sent 
Barnabas to visit the new believers of Antioch. 
st Who, when he came, and had seen the grace 
of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that 
with purpose of heart they would cleave unto 
the Lord." Thus it was that the new converts 
were remembered. Thus it was that they were 
visited and encouraged. 

We also should remember the immense ben- 
efit which converts are capable of receiving 
from labors put forth for their good, and we 
should imitate the example of Christ's ser- 
vants who lived in apostolic times. In all ages 
and times, young disciples have peculiar trials 
and dangers and difficulties, and piety must 
always be progressive in its nature. It is 
therefore the duty of Christ's people at the 
present day, as well as in former times, to con- 
firm the souls of those whose Christian life has 
but just commenced. 



46 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



3. Almost all converts are sadly neglected. 

Should one on whom all eyes are fastened, a 
man of great ability and influence, and occupy- 
ing a distinguished position in the counsels of 
the nation, become a Christian, and should it 
everywhere be known that he has professed to 
be a disciple of Christ, not a few of the people 
of God would earnestly pray th^t he might be 
steadfast. His growth in Christian excellence 
would be intensely desired. He would be 
watched, and any indication of his progress in 
goodness, in zeal for God's glory, in solicitude 
for the Church's advancement, and for the 
spiritual welfare of men would be hailed with 
joy. Many Christians would intercede for him 
that he might be strengthened to resist tempta- 
tions to worldliness, and might be a helper to 
Zion's laborers, and of great service to the Re- 
deemer's cause. All this would be natural. 
It would be strange indeed if God's people 
should not have their attention especially called 
to a convert of this description, one filling a 
conspicuous position, and pre-eminent for his 
gifts and his influence. 

There have been instances in which a power- 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



4i 



ful ruler of some heathen people — one having 
his mind full of heathen prejudices against the 
Christian religion has become a convert to the 
faith, and has apparently become a humble 
Christian ; and when such an event has occurred, 
thanksgiving and praise have ascended from 
the hearts of a multitude of believers. They 
have felt a deep interest in his spiritual condi- 
tion. Now it is freely admitted that such con- 
verts are the objects of the love of the blessed 
Saviour, and that the angels of Heaven rejoice 
over their repentance. But does the blessed Re- 
deemer, and do the angels make that difference 
which we make, between the conversion of such 
and the conversion of persons of more obscure 
position ? When any immortal soul becomes, 
as we have reason to believe, an heir of glory, 
the event should deeply affect us. The most 
lively interest should be felt in every newly re- 
generated soul, whatever his station in life. 

And yet souls are constantly delivered from 
the power of darkness, and translated into the 
kingdom of God's dear Son, in whom scarcely 
any interest is taken, and for w T hose spiritual 
good such little effort is put forth, that we may 



42 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



justly speak of them as neglected converts. 
We fear it is true of almost all who become the 
disciples of Jesus, that they have no one to 
begin immediately to care for their spiritual 
progress. Seeing then that so few in the 
Church of Christ are faithful to the new disci- 
ples who have entered her fold, let them have 
the benefit of your prayers, and of whatever 
other efforts you can make to advance them- in 
the blessed life which they have be^un to live. 
Do not imitate those who expend all their in- 
terest and efforts on converts of conspicuous 
station, while thev feel far less concern for the 
numerous converts of inferior position and in- 
fluence. 

4. You should feel the deepest interest in all 
those recently born from above, when you con- 
sider that they are living in a world in which 
all their relations of a spiritual nature are new 
to them. 

We know the relation of hostility which all 
converts alike sustained, until within a short 
time, to the law of God, to God Himself, to the 
blessed Jesus, and to Christ's Church and peo- 
ple ; and the friendly terms on which they all 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



43 



stood to the world, and to the entire kingdom 
which is opposed to the Saviour's kingdom. 
Until recently they were all under God's dis- 
pleasure (for they that are in the flesh cannot 
please God), and were also God's enemies. 
They every day rejected Christ. Not being for 
Him, they were against Him. They always 
resisted the Holy Spirit. The blessed Spirit 
was neither their Teacher, Comforter, nor 
Sanctifier. They were Satan's subjects, were 
members of that empire which is at war with 
the Church, and so they were the Church's ene- 
mies. We who now recognize them as our 
brethren are compelled to acknowledge that 
until recently this was their attitude to holy 
persons and things, just as once it was ours. 
Only a short time has passed since all these re- 
lations on their part to the spiritual world have 
changed. It is a new thing to them to be ac- 
counted the children of God. To be free from 
the unchallenged and unceasing dominion of 
sin, to be free from the law's dreadful curse, to 
be heirs of glory, possessed of a title to eternal 
life, to be disenthralled from Satan's bondage, 
to be members of Christ, and of His blood- 



44 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



bought Church, to be the loving and beloved 
brethren of all Christians, all this is new to 
them. And is there nothing in all this which 
is fitted to awaken your deepest interest in the 
Church's converts — in all her converts? 

A change having taken place in their rela- 
tion to God and to His law, they have under- 
gone a change in their inward character. Up 
to a very late period of their history they were 
in character completely separated from God 
and from heaven's holy inhabitants, but, during 
the few days, or weeks, or months in which 
they have been believers in Jesus, God, the 
angels, and all perfectly holy beings have been 
able to look upon their inward character with 
the love of complacency. Being now in some 
degree holy they have new, and fresh, and joy- 
ful views of God, of Christ, of the gospel, and 
of the life to come, and their hearts are the 
home of all gracious affections. 

5. Of some converts it may be said with truth 
that the work of endeavoring to benefit them is 
pleasant in itself, and the probability of success 
is most encouraging. 

It is pleasant in the case of some, because 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



45 



when you approach them they meet you with- 
out any restraint of manner, with a delightful 
whole-heartedness, and, at the moment when 
they are in all the freshness of their first love. 
They are living in a world which is new to 
them. They enjoy a sweet rest of soul. The 
Lord is dealing tenderly with them. They 
have not, as yet, found anything irksome or 
burdensome in religious duties. They meet 
you promptly and affectionately, and your heart 
warms toward them, and the last thing you 
think of is that efforts to warn, or encourage, or 
guide them, are going to be painful. Your 
work is not only pleasant, but it is likely to be 
successful, provided you are judicious, cau- 
tious, and persevering. For you will meet 
with few of those difficulties which are very 
often encountered by the faithful minister, or 
private church member who seeks to help older 
professors of religion. For when some among 
them are conversed with, it is found that they 
are depressed and weakened by discouraging 
remembrances of broken resolutions and past 
failures. The convert knows nothing of this. 
He is hopeful, though this may, in part, be 



46 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



owing to his ignorance of the trials and dan- 
gers which are before him. But it is by no 
means necessary that he should sink under 
these when called to contend with them. If he 
begins his Christian life as he ought to begin it, 
that of itself will greatly promote his real prog- 
ress. Expect success then in your endeavors 
to be of service to Christ's young disciples, and 
you will not be disappointed. 

6. Many converts had but little religions in- 
struction in early life. 

The superior knowledge of the Scriptures, 
which some Christians possess, is due, in almost 
all cases, to the fact that they were carefully 
taught the truth of God in childhood and 
youth. In consequence of having been thus 
early instructed, they knew much about the 
Bible even before they were regenerated. 
They had clear views of the plan of salvation, 
of the nature of Christ's w T ork, and of the na- 
ture and office of the Holy Spirit. They had 
some understanding of the manner in which we 
are made partakers of the redemption pur- 
chased by Christ. They comprehended very 
much of the system of truth as it is contained 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



47 



in the Word of God. This knowledge, how- 
ever, as long as it was only speculative, could 
not save them, but, as soon as they were re- 
generated, they immediately had a spiritual 
perception of the divine beauty and glory of 
the truth, already lodged in their minds, 
founded on the Holy Spirit's illumination, and 
thus the truth began to bring forth the fruits of 
holiness in their lives. They also began to 
thirst for further divine knowledge, and to 
make earnest efforts to attain it. In this man- 
ner, as was said, is to be explained the superior 
knowledge of the truth which some Christians 
possess. They were carefully instructed in 
early life. 

But it may be that many converts, who are 
within the reach of your influence, had been, 
up to the time of their regeneration, without 
such instruction. Since they, also, are now the 
subjects of God's grace, and are enlightened by 
the Holy Spirit, it is to be supposed, indeed, 
that they, likewise, will have a sincere desire 
for further knowledge of the things which God 
has revealed, but, in consequence of their lack 
of early instruction; you find them exceedingly 



43 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



ignorant. You would have to say, it may be, of 
many of them, what Baxter wrote concerning 
some who attended upon his ministry, who had 
not been taught the system of truth when they 
were young. He says : " I am daily forced to 
admit how lamentably ignorant many of our 
people are that have seemed diligent hearers of 
me these ten or twelve years, while I spoke as 
plainly as I was able to speak. Some know 
not that each person in the Trinity is God ; 
nor that Christ is God and man ; nor that He 
took His human nature into heaven ; nor many 
the like necessary principles of our faith." 
Seeing, then, there are many converts of this 
description, who need to have their sad want 
of early religious instruction made up to them, 
what a motive you have to cultivate the habit 
of striving to do good to all believers within 
your reach, who are young in the Christian life. 

7. Many stiff er great loss in consequence of 
their slowness to disclose their conflicts and dif- 
ficulties. 

Many converts have but a trembling hope 
of their own acceptance. Their faith and hope 
are not sufficiently strong to exclude painful 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 49 

anxieties about their spiritual state. Others 
enjoy a comfortable hope that their salvation 
is really begun, who have perplexities which 
they are not able to dismiss from their minds 
about the teachings of the Bible concerning 
certain doctrines. Others are sorely tried by 
doubts as to how they should act in the pecu- 
liar circumstances in which they are placed. 
And still others often find it difficult to resist 
the temptation to indulge in practices lawful in 
themselves, but which in their case would be 
sinful, the lawfulness of such practices not be- 
ing to their minds clear. Now it is of the ut- 
most importance that young believers, who have 
such inward difficulties and struggles, should 
not keep them locked up in their own bosoms, 
but should disclose them. It is possible for 
them to be aided by the counsels and instruc- 
tions of their more experienced brethren. In 
order, however, that they may be encouraged 
to disclose their trials, they must see a readi- 
ness in their fellow church-members to help 
them. They should be urged, in a spirit of 
love, to make their conflicts known. Their re- 
luctance to speak of their inward troubles 
3 



SO THE SA VIO UR'S CONVER TS. 



might be overcome by a little solicitation, pro- 
vided you use the tact which is necessary for 
the right performance of so delicate a duty, for 
it cannot be denied that the attempt to benefit 
men by such approaches to them is a delicate 
one. " The reserve which most people feel in 
reference to laying bare their inmost thoughts, 
the painful burden borne in silence often so 
long, the shrinking from observation, the Nico- 
demus-like approach of many souls to Christ 
for light, ought to instruct us to walk softly 
here." Still, you need not be deterred from 
the attempt to win the confidence even of the 
most sensitive, if you are actuated by the sin- 
cerest love for them, and if God gives you wis- 
dom, which he will give you, in answer to 
prayer. Let it be your habit, then, to give at- 
tention to the needs of converts, for you may 
then frequently enjoy opportunities of encour- 
aging them to disclose their doubts and strug- 
gles of mind instead of concealing them to their 
own injury. 

Should you succeed in winning their confi- 
dence, and should you really be helpful to 
them, you yourself will receive benefit. You 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



51 



will have the comfort of knowing that you have 
done good to some, who, but for you, would 
probably have been entirely neglected. The 
Saviour will bestow upon you the reward which 
He reserves for those who care for, and feed 
— "the little ones " — the lambs of His flock, 
for He numbers converts among the little ones 
who believe on Him. You will learn much 
concerning the forbearance, mercy, patience, 
and compassion of Christ for those whom He 
came to seek and to save. These precious 
words will often be present to your 'mind: 
" He shall feed His flock like a shepherd ; Pie 
shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry 
them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those 
that are with young. 33 Moreover, the very 
truths with which you seek to enlighten and 
strengthen the untaught and inexperienced 
young Christian will be promotive of your own 
spiritual good. They will come home to your 
own heart with power. 

8. One reason why so many prof essing Chris- 
tians imbibe hurtful errors is that so little at- 
tention was paid to them when they were con- 
verts. 



$2 THE SAVIOUR'S COX VERTS. 



There is no denying the fact that many who 
were hopefully converted fail to abide stead- 
fastly in the truth. They may not speedily, 
after professing Christ, forsake the truths they 
had engaged and expected always to revere 
and obey, but the time arrives when important 
doctrines, after becoming gradually less esteemed, 
are finally given up, while erroneous views are 
embraced and zealously advocated. This might 
have been prevented had they been from the 
beginning really under the Church's care — had 
they been faithfully warned, instructed, guard- 
ed, counselled, and prayed for. But while the 
Church neglects her converts, Satan is not in- 
active. f< Xor can any human faculty perceive 
the precise mode in which falsehood will be 
presented by a wily foe. Sometimes it is the 
vehicle which is attractive. It may, for exam- 
ple, be elegant style, it may be romance, it may 
be closely-knit argumentation, it may be popu- 
lar eloquence. The union of several such fas- 
cinations may invite the youth to taste the 
poisonous clusters, and acquire a fondness for 
doubts and cavils. The name and fame of some 
great heretical preacher summons numbers of 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



55 



half-instructed people who admire, and acqui- 
esce, and go again, not knowing that the new 
doctrines which they drink in will presently un- 
settle the religious belief of their childhood. 
Among the multitude of books, public journals, 
orations, lectures, poems, and common talk, in 
which we live, there are every day some which 
propose unscriptural, and even anti-Christian 
opinions. There are many who read abun- 
dance of books, but among them so little of 
Christian theology that they do not recognize 
the erroneous sentiments of unsound systems, 
if offered to them with prettiness of diction, 
pretension to philosophy, cant phrases, and the 
rounded voice of a popular lecturer. These 
false teachings often begin far away from the 
point at which they really aim.'' 

Let the convert be warned in time. Let him 
be earnestly admonished. Let him be ex- 
horted to continue in the faith — to hold fast his 
profession. Let him be cautioned against fall- 
ing into the mistake of supposing that when 
one is truly converted, any great deception in 
reference to spiritual things is henceforth im- 
possible. Let him be reminded of the frequent 



54 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



warnings against this very peril, addressed by 
Christ and His apostles even to true disciples, 
warnings full of meaning and power: ''Take 
heed lest any man deceive you." " Be not de- 
ceived." " Let him that thinketh he standeth 
take heed lest he fall." " Let no man deceive 
you with vain words." "-If there come any 
unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive 
him not into your house, neither bid him God 
speed: for he that biddeth him Godspeed, is 
partaker of his evil deeds." Let him be taught 
"that the new convert whose appetite often 
surpasses his power of discernment, is singu- 
lar!}- liable to be duped by error," and that 
salutary fear of this folly is often the means of 
preventing it. 

9. Many converts might be saved from wan- 
dering from the fold, and from long-continued 
decline, were they not so sadly neglected. 

A regenerated person may begin to grow in 
grace from the very start, and he may make no 
mean attainments, and yet he may not con- 
tinue to advance long. He may never have 
thoroughly learned that, although God works 
in the believer to will and to do, yet the be- 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



55 



liever is, with fear and trembling, to work out 
his own salvation. Or, if at first alive to the 
necessity of diligence, his conviction of its ne- 
cessity may gradually be blunted, and less and 
less realized, in consequence of his increasing 
attachment to the world. 

Many of God's people begin to decline even 
in the early part of their Christian course, and, 
as a consequence of this, live and die without 
making those attainments in holiness, which it 
is in the power of all to make who are con- 
stantly watchful, and who are active, energetic, 
and unwearied in using the means of grace. 
The following, which we quote from Dr. Alex- 
ander's work, "Thoughts on Religious Experi- 
ence, " well describes the downward course of 
many believers, who, at first, give promise of 
uninterrupted progress : 

" The young convert's love to the Saviour, 
and to the saints, is fresh and fervent, and his 
religious zeal, though not well regulated by 
knowledge, is ardent. He often puts older dis- 
ciples to the blush by the warmth of his affec- 
tions, and his alacrity in the service of his Re- 
deemer. This is, indeed, the season of his first 



5 6 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



love, which began to flow in the day of his 
espousals ; and though, occasionally, dark 
clouds intercept his views, these are soon for- 
gotten, when the clear sunshine breaks forth to 
cheer him on his way. During this period he 
delights in social exercises, especially in com- 
munion w r ith those of his own age, and in 
prayer, and in praise and in spiritual conversa- 
tion. His heart is lifted up to heaven, and he 
longs for the time when he may join the^ songs 
of the upper temple. But ere long the scene 
changes. Gradually the glow of fervent affec- 
tions subsides. Worldly pursuits, even the 
most lawful and necessary, steal away the 
heart ; and various perplexing entanglements 
beset the inexperienced traveller. He begins to 
see that there w T ere many things faulty in his 
early course. He blames his own weakness or 
enthusiasm ; and in avoiding one extreme he 
easily falls into the opposite, to which human 
nature has a strong bias. He enters into more 
intercourse with the world, and, of course, im- 
bibes insensibly some portion of its spirit. 
This has a deadening effect on his religious 
feelings ; and his devotions are less fervent and 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. S7 

less punctual ; and far more interrupted with 
vain, wondering thoughts, than before ; and he 
is apt to fall into a hasty or formal attendance 
on the daily duties of the closet ; and a little 
matter will sometimes lead him to neglect these 
precious seasons of grace. A strange forget- 
fulness of the presence of God, and of his ac- 
countableness for every thought, word, and 
action seizes upon him. Close self-examination 
becomes painful, and when attempted, is un- 
successful. New evils begin to appear spring- 
ing up in the heart. The imagination, before 
he is aware, is filled with sensual imagery, 
which affording carnal pleasure, the train of his 
thoughts is with difficulty changed. Envy, un- 
due indulgence of the appetites, love of riches, 
fondness for dress and show, the love of ease, 
aversion to spiritual duties, with numerous 
similar and nameless evils, are now bred in the 
heart, and come forth to annoy and retard the 
Christian in his course. His pride makes him 
unwilling to open his ear to friendly and frater- 
nal reproof ; such words fall heavily on him, 
and wound his morbid sensibility, so that a 
conflict takes place between a sense of duty 
3* 



58 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



and unmortified pride. If, in this conflict, 
pride should gain the victory, alas, how much 
sin follows in its train— resentment toward a 
kind brother, hypocrisy in concealing the real 
dictates of conscience, and a neglect of all 
efforts at improvement. The person thus cir- 
cumstanced, is instinctively led to endeavor to 
persuade himself that he has done right. Still, 
however, the language of his better part is that 
of self-condemnation. But he hushes it up, 
and assumes an air of innocence and boldness, 
and thus the Spirit is grieved. Who can de- 
scribe the train of evils which ensue, on one 
defeat of this kind ? The mind becomes dark 
and desolate ; communion with God is inter- 
rupted, and a course of backsliding commences, 
which sometimes goes on for years, and then 
the wanderer is not arrested and brought back 
without severe chastisement. ,, Cases of spirit- 
ual declension are so common that some have 
thought there is no way of avoiding the evil. 
This is going too far, but certainly the danger 
of declining and even of backsliding is very 
great, and the greatest pains should be taken 
to put the new disciple on his guard. Use 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS, 59 



every means, therefore, to save the convert 
from so terrible an evil. Fix one thought 
deeply in his mind : that there is no standing 
still — that to fail in making progress, is to go 
backward. 

io. Yoit may be the means of the conversion 
of self-deceived converts. 

Our Saviour teaches us, in His parable of the 
sower, that many hear the word with attention, 
and even feel the power of the truth delivered. 
It makes an impression on them. They are 
not wayside hearers. They exercise a certain 
kind of faith. Their faith, however, is not that 
which saves, it is not genuine. It differs from 
spiritual discernment. It does not perceive 
the inherent beauty, sweetness, and glory of 
the truth. It is founded on the power of con- 
science, and is, therefore, capable of producing 
temporary obedience, and emboldens those 
who have it, to connect themselves with the 
Church, but it does not work by love, purify 
the heart, and overcome the world. Such per- 
sons must perish forever, as truly as the har- 
dened and insensible, unless they are changed, 
and have eyes given them from above, to be- 



60 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



hold the divine glory and loveliness of Jesus, 
and unless they truly come to Him, look to 
Him, flee to Him, and rest upon Him alone for 
their salvation. It is just as great and blessed a 
thing to save such self-deceived converts, as it 
is to save those who make no pretension to re- 
ligion. But, if you are in the habit of exerting 
yourself to benefit the new disciples within 
your reach, it may so happen that, without 
your knowing or designing it, you will be the 
means of saving such apparent converts. They 
may be enlightened to see, they may be 
brought to feel that the words of instruction, 
or encouragement or exhortation with which 
you address them, are not applicable to them, 
and they, seeing and feeling this, your words 
may alarm and awaken them. And, while 
they are anxious not to be again deceived, the 
work wrought in them may be thorough, and 
their repentance may be one not to be re- 
pented of. How many self-deceived professors 
might be enlightened to see their true condition, 
and be saved, did all church members faithfully 
fulfil their engagement to watch over each other, 
and to seek each other's spiritual well-being. 



THE SA VI 0 UR 'S C ONVER TS. 



6l 



II. If you are instrumental in promoting the 
spiritual good of converts y you will be the means 
of promoting the prosperity of the whole Church. 

Is it through the conversion of souls unto 
Jesus that the Church increases in life and 
power ? Yes, but not in that way alone. She 
also advances and prospers by the growth in 
holiness of those whose salvation is already be- 
gun, of those who are already within her pale, 
and belong to her. This is one reason why 
the increasing spirituality of a single believer 
always filled the great apostle with joy. The 
spiritual prosperity of any disciple, for whose 
welfare he labored, filled him with exultation, 
not only because of his love for that disciple, 
but because he knew that thereby the entire 
Church received an accession of strength. He 
knew that the Church, like the human body, is 
one organic whole, and that as a consequence of 
this the religious advancement of the humblest 
believer tends to the symmetry and perfection 
of the entire Church. Think of this truth with 
comfort, whenever you hope that you have 
been instrumental in helping a fellow Christian 
—yes, a convert, whose spiritual necessities ap- 



62 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



pealed to your Christian love for assistance. 
As no Christian can grow in grace without 
thereby adding in some little degree to the in- 
ward strength of the kingdom of Christ on 
earth, while he at the same time weakens the 
kingdom of Satan, so, whoever aids a Chris- 
tian to grow in grace, is thereby useful to the 
whole Church. 

The inducements presented in this chapter to 
aid the Saviour's converts should surely have 
weight with all who attentively consider them. 
Those who, tenderly alive to their condition 
and needs, have persevered in efforts to do 
them good, have been among Christ's most 
useful servants. An eminently holy and suc- 
cessful minister of the gospel in giving some 
account of the zeal and activity of a church 
member, says of him : "-It pleased a gracious 

God, about the year , to revive religion with 

extraordinary power in all the country around 
where he lived. It was what he had prayed 
for night and day, but scarcely hoped to see, 
for he had never before witnessed what is called 
a revival. Almost his whole time was now 
spent in conversing with the new converts. 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



He would labor with them in the most earnest 
and affectionate manner, and would bring to 
them suitable books, for he was much conver- 
sant with the most spiritual and experimental 
authors, and many young disciples were deeply 
indebted to his faithful labors." 

That you, reader, may be prepared to engage 
in so blessed a work, keep your own soul in a 
state of nearness to God and of spiritual pros- 
perity. Speak often to your fellow Christians 
about the needs of converts. Learn all you 
can from a survey of your own earliest experi- 
ences about their dangers and wants. 



CHAPTER III. 



SOME OF THE DOCTRINAL TRUTHS WHICH THE CON- 
VERT SHOULD BE ASSISTED TO APPREHEND CLEAR- 
L Y, IN ORDER THA T HE MA Y HA VE A HE A L THY RE- 
LIGIOUS EXPERIENCE, AND ALSO GROW IN GRACE. 



E cannot take the place of God in do- 



' in S g°°d to converts. We cannot exert 
that influence upon them which it belongs to 
the Holy Spirit alone to exert — a supernatural 
influence. The Spirit of God is able to dwell 
within their hearts, controlling and guiding, by 
His divine power, their inward exercises and 
outward conduct, until He brings them at last 
to the purity and blessedness of heaven. We 
cannot thus w r ork w r ithin them. Neither are we 
able to do for converts what they must do for 
themselves. They are not to learn and prac- 
tise Christ's commands by proxy, nor are they 
in this manner to use the means of grace, but 
each one is for himself to work out his salva- 




THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



65 



tion, and glorify, serve, and obey the Lord Je- 
sus. It is only as instruments in the hands of 
God that we can do converts good, and the 
question is, How can we instrumentally benefit 
them ? Undoubtedly by bringing them, by our 
instructions and in every other way in our 
power, to know and act upon those truths which 
God has commanded them to receive. Some 
of these truths which should be taught them we 
now proceed to state. 

1. // is important that the young convert 
should be taught that the feeling or experience 
of conviction of sin is not confined to the awak- 
ened sinner, but that it is an experience which 
characterizes every believer. 

The true believer views the character of God 
with complacency, loves Him, and has hope in 
His mercy ; but these gracious affections which 
spring up in every new-born soul do not drive 
away all conviction of sin. The Christian who 
has begun to love, trust, and serve Jesus, still 
retains that part of conviction at least, which 
consists in a sense of sin or inward pollution. 
This feeling he retains after all his agitation 
and distress, and fear of God's wrath have en- 



66 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



tirely passed away. His sense of sin deepens 
and increases as he grows in grace. The Holy 
Spirit so enlightens him, gives him such a 
knowledge of himself (not all at once, but grad- 
ually), that it may sometimes seem to him that 
instead of making progress in holiness, he is 
becoming more and more sinful. This is a 
truer conviction of sin than that which belongs 
to the awakened and alarmed sinner who has 
not yet embraced the offer of mercy. But the 
conviction is not painful, because the sorrow 
which belongs to it is a godly sorrow. It is 
all the more important that the convert should 
receive instruction as to this, for it is exten- 
sively taught in these days that the Christian 
should not be in this state of mind — should not 
have such an experience in regard to sin, since 
it would show that he has not yet looked to 
Christ for everything, and received everything 
— " has not passed out of the bondage of the 
seventh chapter of Romans into the sweet lib- 
erty of the eighth/' * 

* "There is no difference between the experience described 
in Rom. viii. and that delineated in vii. 14-25. The same con- 
flict between grace and indwelling sin is found in both chapters. 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



6 7 



True believers, moreover, have as vivid a feel- 
ing of ill desert as they have of inward pollu- 
tion. Their conscience, their whole soul tells 
them that they merit nothing better than the 
penalty of God's violated law. It tells them 
this, even more powerfully than it did when in 
a state of impenitency they were awakened 
from their security and brought with alarm to 
see their danger. It is true that being now 
united to Christ they may have much peace 
and even joy, but they can never forget that 
they really deserve to be banished forever from 
God's presence. And what their conscience 

The person in the seventh chapter who is 4 sold under sin ' 
(vii. 14), and 4 serves with the flesh the law of sin ' (vii. 25), and 
cries, 4 O wretched man, who shall deliver me ' (vii. 24), and yet 
* thanks God, through Jesus Christ,' for his deliverance, and 
6 serves with the mind the law of God ' (vii. 25), belongs to that 
class who in the eighth chapter have been 4 made free from the 
law of sin and death by the law of the Spirit of life ' (viii. 2), 
and yet are exhorted 'not to live after the flesh' (viii. 12), and 
to 'mortify the deeds of the body' (viii. 13), who 4 have re- 
ceived the Spirit of adoption, crying, Abba, Father' (viii. 15), 
and yet 4 groan within themselves, waiting for the adoption, to 
wit, the redemption of the body ' (viii. 23), and 4 with patience 
wait for ' sinless perfection and heavenly blessedness (viii. 25)." — 
Dr. Shedd's 44 Com. on Romans." 



68 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



and their whole soul tells them as to this, is 
true as a matter of fact. Though God's chil- 
dren and the objects of His love, and free from 
condemnation, they are, in fact, deserving of 
condemnation and of the curse which the law 
has denounced against sin. And they will, as 
a matter of fact, be deserving of it in heaven, 
notwithstanding they will in heaven be perfectly 
holy and happy. 

When a saint enters heaven he enters that 
blessed abode free from condemnation, i.e., with 
his sentence to eternal death removed, and with 
a title to eternal life. This, indeed, he enjoyed 
while in the body, and abiding on earth — he 
enjoyed it from the moment when he began to 
trust in Jesus to save him. He also enters 
heaven perfectly holy, not because he was per- 
fectly holy in this life (though in this life he 
was, in some degree, holy) but because he was 
made perfect in holiness at the moment of 
death. But while these two things are true of 
the believer when he passes into glory, it is not 
true of him that he passes into glory deserving 
any blessing whatever. He is ill deserving as 
he enters heaven, and will be so forever ; nor 



THE SAVIOURS CONVERTS. 



6 9 



will this fact ever be forgotten by him. He 
will never be weary of acknowledging it as he 
ascribes praise and glory to Him that sits on 
the throne, and to the Lamb at His right hand. 
It is not possible ever to take away the ill de- 
sert of one who has sinned. 

Most persons believe that our first parents 
were saved. Now when Adam disobeyed the 
command of God, and ate the forbidden fruit, 
perfectly aware at the time that he was dis- 
obeying God and was involving himself and his 
posterity in ruin, he had immediately a sense of 
his own ill desert, of his desert of punishment. 
But did he lose that sense of demerit when he 
became a penitent and when, by faith, he re- 
ceived the seed of the woman as his deliverer 
and Saviour ? Not at all. Though peace 
came to his soul, yet he well knew and deeply 
felt that he richly merited death, spiritual and 
eternal. And now that he is as holy and 
happy as he was when first created in Eden, 
does he not feel, with overflowing gratitude to 
the Son of God his Saviour, that he enjoys 
what he by no means deserves to enjoy ? As- 
suredly he does. 



7o 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



If when one becomes a convert his mind 
could be freed from confusion in regard to this 
matter, it might prevent him from receiving 
injury from erroneous teaching, and it might 
save him from having a morbid religious ex- 
perience. 

2. We shall be of the greatest service to oitr 
young brethren in Christ if we can be the 
means of their obtaining, and also of their re- 
taining clear views of that new relation (in- 
volved in their justification) which all true be- 
lievers sustain to the law. 

One of the most difficult things which believ- 
ers have to do, is to learn to exercise a steady 
unshaken confidence in the doctrine of gratui- 
tous pardon, and yet the possession and exer- 
cise of this confidence is indispensable, in order 
that there may be real advancement in piety. 
It is the same thing as to clearlv see the truth 
that the believer's relation to the law is changed 
— that he is justified freely by God's grace — • 
that he is pardoned and accepted as righteous 
without being obliged to render a satisfaction to 
the law in his own person. To see and practi- 
cally to believe the truth, moment by moment, 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 7 1 

that our relation to the law is changed ; so 
changed that we have nothing to do in order to 
our pardon and acceptance — that we have only 
to receive pardon and acceptance gratefully, as 
a free gift, is, we say, difficult. And yet the 
new convert, who is so apt to make much of 
his frames, and so is in great danger of starting 
wrong, must learn the truth, and learn it so 
thoroughly that it shall shape his whole religi- 
ous life. " To preach the doctrine of free 
grace fully/' says an able writer, u without 
verging toward Antinomianism, is no easy task, 
and is, therefore, seldom done. But Christians 
cannot but be lean and feeble when deprived 
of their proper nutriment/' 

The apostle in teaching, in his epistle to the 
Romans, the doctrine of the believer's justifica- 
tion through Christ's righteousness, handles 
the subject of his freedom from the law separ- 
ately, and illustrates it at the beginning of the 
seventh chapter. 

Although no man can be a Christian who in- 
telligently wishes to be subject to the law (as a 
rule of justification) in all its strictness, and 
who persists in striving to merit salvation by 



72 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



obedience to it, yet even the true Christian, and 
who consequently has no desire to be again 
under the law (7. e. t has no desire to be under 
obligation to obey the law as the condition of 
obtaining eternal life), has his times of conflict 
and anxiety, when he fears to venture wholly 
on Christ, and when he sinfully looks away 
from Him. At such times, forgetting that he 
has been made a partaker of the liberty where- 
with Christ makes His people free, and goaded 
by his conscience, he endeavors to satisfy the 
law and gain the favor of God by meritorious 
acts, or by living a better life. This causes 
him to carry a heavy burden and hinders his 
progress in the divine life. Christians often 
show that they have not the consciousness 
which it is so necessary for them to have, of 
being free from the law as prescribing the con- 
dition on which eternal life is to be gained. 
They show this when they look upon their afflic- 
tions as a punishment. God never punishes 
His people, though in His faithfulness and love 
He often chastises them, and that severely. 
When believers think that God is punishing 
them — is sending evils upon them for no other 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



73 



purpose than to give them what they justly de- 
serve — they make it manifest that they regard 
themselves not as free from the law but as sub- 
ject to it. In the case of some Christians the 
only thing which prevents them from having an 
assurance of their own salvation is a vague 
thought which still lingers within them that 
their personal conformity to the law is the con- 
dition of their obtaining the favor of God and 
eternal life. 

The attention of the young Christian should 
be directed to the fact that there is this tendency 
to legality in the heart, even in the believer's 
heart. " This is one of the phases of indwell- 
ing sin. Undoubtedly Christians are kept from 
a high degree of peace and joy in believing, 
because of their proneness to lose sight of 
Christ's vicarious righteousness, and to trust in 
personal righteousness. It should be noticed, 
however, that the true believer, in as far as he 
discovers this proneness and inclination, abhors 
it. He desires, above all things, to trust in 
Christ alone and perfectly, for justification. 
He is frequently, nay continually, foiled in re- 
gard not to a general and prevailing trust in 
4 



74 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



Him, but to a perfect and complete trust. He 
grieves over this fact, resists and fights with 
this inclination to self-righteousness and legality, 
and looks forward to an eternal rest in Christ, 
as his sacrifice for sin, and his righteousness 
before God. This lack of high and strong faith 
which characterizes us all, is owing to the re- 
mainders of corruption in us, and should be 
looked upon, and struggled with, just as in- 
dwelling sin generally should be. ,, # 

Converts cannot too soon be brought to un- 
derstand the marvellous change which has 
taken place in their relation to that holy law of 
God which so lately condemned them. They 
cannot too soon be intelligently assured of the 
truth, that those sinners who believe in Jesus 
are free from the obligation to fulfil the law's 
demands in their own persons for the purpose of 
obtaining eternal life — that those sinners who 
believe in Jesus are now, " under a gracious 
dispensation according to which God dispenses 
pardon freely, and accepts the sinner as a sin- 
ner, for Christ's sake, without works or merits 



* Dr. Shedd. 



THE SAVIOUR'S COX VERTS. 



75 



of his own/' For until converts are brought 
to see and understand this doctrine, they must, 
of course, fail practically to feel it and act upon 
it, and then of what use can the blessed Sa- 
viour be to them ? He cannot even be the 
author of their sanctification, for instead of re- 
membering that growth in grace is secured by 
union to Christ, whereby we partake of his life, 
they will depend on their own strength to over- 
come sin. Moreover, as long as men are under 
a legal or slavish spirit, the principle of obedi- 
ence in them is not love but fear. They can- 
not, therefore, have a filial spirit, and must be 
utter strangers to the Christian's happiness. 
''Their whole object is to propitiate God by 
means which they know to be inadequate. 
Their spirit is servile, their religion a bondage, 
their God a hard master. To men in such a 
state true love, true obedience, and real peace 
are alike impossible. There is no such thing as 
real acceptable obedience, until we are delivered 
from the bondage of the law as a rule of justifi- 
cation, and are reconciled to God by the death 
of His Son. Till then we are slaves and ene- 
mies and have the feelings of slaves. When we 



7 6 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



have accepted the terms of reconciliation we are 
the sons of God and have the feelings of sons." 

It is necessary, then, that the convert should 
understand that all believers are entirely redeem- 
ed from the law ; that they are, in perfect con- 
sistency with the holy character of God, justified 
in another way than by personally satisfying 
the law's demands ; that God can be a just God 
and yet justify believers without exacting any 
righteousness which they have worked out; and 
that in the case of those who have already 
broken the law (and this is the case with be- 
lievers), freedom from its demands, considered 
as prescribing the terms of acceptance, is ne- 
cessary in order that their salvation may be a 
possible thing. He should be clearly taught 
that it is by the mystery of vicarious obedience 
and suffering, even by the satisfaction which 
the blessed Son of God rendered to law and 
justice as our substitute, and in our place, that 
we are delivered from the law's bondage. 
And, moreover, that this satisfaction rendered 
by the blessed Saviour, at the same time that it 
frees us from the obligation to obey and suffer 
in our own persons, constitutes the righteous- 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



77 



ness which is presented as the ground of our 
justification before God, 

When a burdened and conscience-stricken 
member of the Romish Church is brought to 
see the utter falseness of the teaching of his 
Church concerning the way of salvation, and 
when he becomes enlightened as to the true 
way, how exceedingly, even beyond the power 
of words to express, does he prize this doctrine 
of the believer's freedom from the law ! He 
had been taught that, although the removal 
from the soul of original sin is effected by bap- 
tism, and that, although grace is then infused, 
and guilt remitted, yet the sins which it is al- 
ways committing after baptism cannot be per- 
fectly forgiven until the process of sanctification 
within it is completed, that is, until the soul 
has at last reached thorough conformity to 
God's law, and is morally perfect. Then, and 
not before, can perfect forgiveness, and God's 
entire favor be enjoyed. But this sanctifica- 
tion (on the full completion of which God's en- 
tire favor depends) can only be carried on by 
being merited by the soul. Increase of grace 
must be deserved or merited by good works. 



78 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



And, further, past sins must be atoned for by- 
self-inflicted sufferings, in order that the grace 
lost through those past sins may be restored. 
Very few, however, attain to a state of Christian 
perfection in this life — most are still imperfect 
at death, while they have failed to make, - by 
the pains of penance, sufficient satisfaction for 
their sins. These immediately after death go to 
purgatory, where they suffer by its fires more 
or less intensely for a longer or shorter period, 
until their sins are both atoned for and purged 
out. Thus perfection and the consequent 
favor of God can never be obtained, without 
being merited by ceaseless, slavish labor, and 
the endurance of dreadful suffering. 

This way of being saved is the only one 
known to tens of thousands of sin-burdened 
souls. But now and then one who has long 
been in bondage to this cruel, legal system of 
Satan's devising, is delivered from his thral- 
dom, is brought to see the light, and to know 
that he need not merit salvation, but that sinners 
who believe in Jesus are free from all the law's 
demands as the condition of enjoying God's 
favor, and are saved by grace, and entirely by 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



79 



grace. Is it easy to describe the joy of such a 
soul when it obtains its liberty, or to under- 
stand how precious the doctrine of the believer's 
freedom from the law must be to it ! 

As was said, the apostle, in treating the doc- 
trine of the believer's justification in his epistle 
to the Romans, handles the subject of his free- 
dom from the law separately, and, at the be- 
ginning of the seventh chapter illustrates it. 
He also, in the same epistle, strongly asserts 
the truth, as he does also in his epistle to the 
Galatians : "Ye are not under the law," he 
says, " but under grace." That is, your own 
personal obedience to the law is no longer the 
condition prescribed for your obtaining justifi- 
cation. You are under grace. Your justifica- 
tion is, as far as you are concerned, perfectly 
gratuitous. 

Believers, then, from the very moment when 
by faith they are united to Christ, are free 
from the law. And further than this they are 
right before the law, viz., are forever justified, 
pronounced righteous, accepted on the ground 
of the Saviour's merits as fully entitled to the 
blessing of eternal life. Thus complete and 



8o 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



wonderful is the change which has taken place 
in their relation to the law. But we should re- 
member that the convert does not as yet fully 
realize the new and happy position which he 
occupies, and we should endeavor to instruct 
him concerning it. Unless he clearly under- 
stands it, he never can have a settled sense of 
forgiveness, nor the spirit of adoption, nor can 
he grow rapidly in grace. 

3. It should be made clear to tlie converts 
mind that, although believers are free fro7n the 
law in the sense that it is for tliem no longer 
the rule of justification, they sustain another re- 
lation to it which can never be terminated y but 
mttst always continue. 

There is no necessity that the convert should 
infer, if he is faithfully taught, that believers are 
in every sense free from the obligation to be 
conformed in their character and actions to the 
law. He can be taught that, in the sense of 
having liberty to sin, and to abstain from 
efforts to be holy, they never can be free. 
The apostle denies that any moral obligation 
is weakened by this deliverance of believers 
from the law. " What then ? " he exclaims, 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



Si 



"shall we sin, because we are not under the 
law, but under grace ? God forbid. How shall 
we who died to sin, live any longer therein ? " 

While, then, sinners must be free from the 
law as a rule of justification if they are to be 
saved, no man can ever be free from it, as a 
rule of duty. 

It should be made clear to the mind of the 
new believer that deliverance from the penalty 
is only a part of salvation, that Christ's death 
has become ours, not only as an expiation from 
sin, but even as a means of our sanctification. 
Indeed it is in order that we may be holy that 
we are pardoned, and the very reason why we 
are justified is that we may be sanctified. It 
is not mere pardon that is offered us in the 
gospel. " The very act by which we become 
interested in the redemption of Christ from the 
condemnation of the law makes us partakers of 
his Holy Spirit/' who having renewed us in the 
whole man after the image of God, enables us 
more and more to die unto sin, and live unto 
righteousness. 

There are those who have been, by an opera- 
tion of the Holy Spirit, so changed as to their 
4* 



82 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



inward character, that it is now in some 
degree holy — in other words, is in some de- 
gree conformed to the requirements of God's 
holy law. Having been made holy, they love 
holiness. They fully recognize their obligation 
to be entirely free from sin, and they rejoice 
that this is required of them. They are well 
aware that they are only holy in part, but they 
are ever longing and striving to come up to the 
very standard of perfection. Nothing less can 
satisfy them. This is the only salvation they 
seek. " They feel that the charm and glory of 
redemption is deliverance from sin and con- 
formity to God, that the whole design and pur- 
pose of the mission and sufferings of the Saviour 
would be frustrated if His people were not made 
partakers of His holiness. This is the crown of 
righteousness, the prize of the high calling of 
God, the exaltation and blessedness for which 
they long, and suffer, and pray." 

Who are those who have experienced this 
blessed change in their nature, in their inward 
character, so that in character and life they are 
in some degree conformed to that law which is 
holy, just, and good, while they are constantly 



THE SAVIOUR'S COXVERTS. 



83 



striving after more complete conformity to it ? 
They are the very ones who in one sense are 
not under the law, who are so set free from it 
as a rule of justification that it no longer re- 
quires them to satisfy its demands as the con- 
dition of reaching heaven. 

The convert who is brought to understand 
this, sees that two changes take place when one 
becomes a believer. His relation to the law is 
changed and there is also, by an operation of 
the Holy Spirit, such a change effected in his 
character that he is brought into a state of con- 
formity (partial conformity) to the very law 
which no longer binds him as a rule of justifica- 
tion. At the same time he fully recognizes the 
fact that to be guilty of sin and to be wanting 
in perfect conformity to the Adamic law in all 
its extent and strictness, are precisely the same 
thing, and that therefore his obligation, to be 
completely conformed to it, must always remain. 
And while he recognizes this obligation, it gives 
him joy to think of it because he delights in the 
law of God after the inward man. 

No true believer ever did, or ever will accept 
the dreadful Antinomian doctrine that holiness 



84 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



of life is not required of those to whom Christ's 
righteousness is imputed ; that His people are 
delivered from all obligation to observe God's 
law, even as a rule of duty ; that they are not 
bound to be personally conformed to it ; that 
they are redeemed from it in every sense ; that 
even should they continue in sin, they violate 
no law which they are bound to obey. We 
have already quoted the words of Paul in which 
he repudiates this horrible doctrine slanderously 
charged against him. 

But while it is abhorrent to the mind of every 
true Christian to admit that God's law is abro- 
gated, many whose piety we cannot doubt, 
maintain (at least in their creeds) that while a 
law does indeed exist, obedience to which is re- 
quired, it is only the law which they call the 
evangelical law. No other law are believers 
required to obey. This, for Christ's sake, is 
substituted for the original law of absolute 
moral perfection, so that the latter is not now 
even our rule of action, to which it is our duty 
to be personally conformed. This milder law, 
Christ the mediator has introduced as being 
adopted to the fallen condition of man. It re- 



THE SAVIOUR'S COXVERTS. 



85 



quires no more of men than that they should 
possess the conditions of faith and evangelical 
obedience, which condition all men are by grace 
made capable of fulfilling. These persons teach 
that God can consistently with His justice thus 
lower the demands upon us of the Adamic law, 
because Christ has fully satisfied its demands in 
our behalf. If obeying the evangelical law is 
the way to obtain justification, then the doc- 
trine of perfection seems a necessary part of 
this scheme, and indeed its advocates hold that 
what they call gracious or Christian perfection 
is attainable, and is in fact actually attained by 
many before death. Although every true Chris- 
tian whose creed contains even this system of 
belief, must reject the Antinomian doctrine, yet 
this system tends to Antinomianism, since by it 
the law of absolute perfection originally im- 
posed on our race is set aside in order that the 
evangelical law may be substituted in its 
place. 

Aspiration after complete conformity in char- 
acter and life to God's perfect law, should pos- 
sess the soul of every believer, and it would be 
well for converts if all their associations were 



86 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS, 



always with Christians filled with this holy long- 
ing. 

God's holy law is universal and immutable, 
and demands spotless holiness of every account- 
able being, and this because it is an expression 
of the absolute moral perfection of the divine 
nature. It should be impressed upon the mind 
of the convert that it can never be relaxed, 
and that not to come up to all its demands is 
to suffer infinite loss. He should be taught 
that the gospel even increases our obligations 
to be perfectly conformed to it. Never should 
he forget that although believers are, as has 
been shown, free from the law in the sense that 
it is for them no longer the rule of justification, 
they sustain another relation to it which must 
always continue. 

4. The convert needs instruction concerning 
the work of sanctification now begun in his soul. 

First, he needs to be taught that sanctification 
is as much due to the agency of the Holy Spirit 
as regeneration — that it is just as much a work 
of grace, and that it does not cease to be due 
to His agency because the soul exerts itself and 
co-operates in the process. Sanctification is 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



87 



not maintained solely by our own exertions, nor 
by the strength of the principle of grace com- 
municated in regeneration ; on the contrary, it 
is by the Spirit's agency all along, and from 
first to last, that any believer grows in holiness u 
Christians too often lose sight of this fact. 

Second, that there could be no such thing as 
sanctification unless sin and holiness both ex- 
isted in the soul. If regeneration removed all 
sin from the soul, then, after becoming in this 
way perfectly holy, it might continue to increase 
in holiness as the angels and the saints in heaven 
do ; but that would not be sanctification. The 
very idea of sanctification supposes the exist- 
ence of indwelling sin — a dying indeed unto it, 
but not a complete deliverance from it. In 
those who are the subjects of this work sin and 
holiness exist together. 

Third. In the believer's sanctification sin be- 
comes weaker and weaker, and its power is 
more and more destroyed, while holiness or 
spiritual life constantly grows and gradually tri- 
umphs over the principle of evil that still re- 
mains in the soul after its regeneration has 
taken place. And while in the main the good 



88 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



is victorious over the evil principle, the time ap- 
proaches when it will be completely triumphant. 

Fourth. The convert needs to be fully in- 
structed in the truth that the blessed Saviour 
in whom the Holy Spirit dwells is the author of 
our sanctification by communicating that same 
Holy Spirit to its. Believers are united to 
Christ by faith, and, while one effect of this 
union is a participation in His merits, another 
effect is that we are made partakers of His 
Spirit — and are made partakers of His Holy 
Spirit expressly that this blessed Agent may 
carry forward the work of sanctification in our 
souls — expressly that He may dwell in us as a 
principle of life, to bring us more and more into 
conformity with the image of God. 

Thus the convert may see how Christ is the 
author of our sanctification. The Holy Spirit, 
the third Person of the glorious Trinity, dwel- 
ling without measure in Christ, dwells also in 
us, so that we partake of Christ's life. Christ 
lives in us (Gal. ii. 20). We see in the Vine 
one of the illustrations presented to us in the 
Scriptures of the truth that believers participate 
in the life of Christ : " I am the vine, ye are 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



8 9 



the branches : he that abideth in me, and I in 
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit : for 
without me ye can do nothing.'' It must be 
deeply impressed on the mind of the convert 
that he can only be sanctified by Christ's living 
in him by His Holy Spirit — that in order to die 
unto sin and live unto righteousness, he must 
be strengthened with might by Christ's Holy 
Spirit in the inner man. Not that the divine 
Spirit accomplishes this work without employ- 
ing the truth. He never acts independently of 
the Word, but always uses it as his instrument 
in producing holiness of heart and life. Its 
agency is asserted in such passages as these : 
" The engrafted word which is able to save your 
souls" (James i. 21). " The word of his grace 
which is able to build you up, and to give you 
an inheritance among all them that are sancti- 
fied" (Acts xx. 32). And the Saviour prays, 
r< Sanctify them by thy truth, thy word is truth " 
(John xvii. 17). Still the truth could have no 
sanctifying, purifying effect did not the Holy 
Spirit attend it, work with it, and give it effi- 
cacy. During the believer's whole life His 
agency is necessary. Nor can sin be destroyed 



90 THE SAVIOURS COX VERTS. 

and spiritual life maintained and advanced in 
the soul in any way except by Christ living and 
abiding in it by His Spirit. 

This is the scriptural explanation of the man- 
ner in which Christ is the Source of the believ- 
er's life ; and it is a very different view from one 
which at the present day is having a wide ac- 
ceptance. It is taught by some in these times 
that Christ wrought out and developed within 
Himself a holy frame and disposition which He 
had no need of for Himself any more than He 
had need of His merits which justify us, and that 
for our sanctification we must trust in Him for 
the impartation to us of this His inward holi- 
ness. According to this, we are sanctified by 
sharing His subjective righteousness by infusion 
through faith. And thus Christ is to do the 
whole work, and we have nothing more to do 
than passively believe that He will. 

Fifth. Justification and sanctification are never 
separated in the believer's experience. Some 
maintain that the believer is by no means, as a 
matter of course, sanctified as soon as he is jus- 
tified ; that his sanctification does not begin 
when he first receives pardon. These persons 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 9 1 



teach that even after one has been regenerated 
and justified, years may pass before he enters 
upon the process of sanctification. When first 
converted, the soul accepts Christ for justifica- 
tion, then afterward, by a separate act, it ac- 
cepts Him for sanctification. " In the ordinary 
and normal progress of the Christian life, after 
regeneration has taken place and after the soul 
has accepted Christ by faith as its Saviour from 
the condemnation and penalty of the law, there 
is a point at which it begins for the first time to 
believe in Christ for sanctification and becomes 
conscious of a transition into a new and higher 
state of life." Now, converts should be guarded 
against this error, and be taught that justifica- 
tion and sanctification, though they are to be 
distinguished, are never separated in experience 
— that true faith embraces Christ in all his of- 
fices as a complete Saviour from the guilt and 
power of sin. Forgiveness cannot be separated 
from purification. The blessed Jesus cannot be 
our Priest without being at the same time our 
Prophet and King ; and the same act of faith 
which accepts Christ in one of his offices, accepts 
Him in all. The moment a man is justified by 



92 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



faith, that very moment the work of sanctifica- 
tion is begun in his soul. 

Sixth. The absolute necessity, in order to its 
sanctification, of the vigorous co-operation of 
the soul itself with Him who works within it to 
will and to do. One would think that there is 
no necessity for dwelling on this. The hum- 
ble, grateful convert, as we behold him, seems to 
know well that he himself must put forth effort. 
If he is truly a subject of God's grace he does 
not ask, Am I required to do anything ? but 
What am I to do ? He understands the teach- 
ing of the Scriptures as to the necessity of our 
working out our own salvation with fear and 
trembling, and he knows much about the means 
of grace which he is to use. Still he needs to 
be warned. So many have become slothful in 
spiritual things and relaxed their efforts, that 
we reasonably feel that each new convert is in 
danger of it. We co-operate with " God who 
worketh in us" when we feel the necessity of 
divine influence in order to our sanctification, 
and pray for it incessantly and with strong de- 
sires. Also when, in obedience to the command 
of Christ, we search the Scriptures and strive to 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS, 



93 



obey their directions ; when we faithfully use 
the public as well as the private means of 
grace, and we must not forget to add when we 
labor to do good to others. 

5. If we seldom think of the Holy Spirit, and 
show no anxiety to become acquainted with 
what the Scriptures teach concerning Him, we 
are guilty of great sin, and need not expect to 
grow in grace. The Spiritual good of the con- 
vert, therefore, requires that he be instructed 
concerning the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as it 
is revealed in the Bible. 

No true believer will deny the personality of 
the Holy Spirit. It is one thing, however, to 
admit His personality in words, and quite an- 
other to think of Him, feel toward Him, and 
pray to Him as a Person, who while He is the 
same in substance with the Father and the Son, 
is distinct from them. That He is in Himself a 
distinct, intelligent/and divine Person could not 
be more plainly taught in the Scriptures than it 
is. 

Only a person can speak, and say I, and yet 
we are told (Acts xiii. 2) that " the Holy Ghost 
said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the 



94 



THE SAVIOUR'S COX VERTS. 



work whereunto / have called them." In like 
manner the use of the pronoun He by our 
Saviour, when he speaks of the Holy Spirit, in 
the sixteenth chapter of John, as well as in 
other places, shows that the Holy Spirit is a 
person. 

He sustains the relations to us, and performs 
the offices for us, of a teacher, comforter, and 
guide. Therefore, He is a Person. 

He must be a person because the elements 
of personality, i. intelligence, will, and indi- 
vidual subsistence, are expressly attributed to 
Him. They are attributed to Him in those 
passages in which He is said to search or know 
all things, even the deep things of God, and in 
which also He is said to will, and to act. I 
Cor. ii. io, 12, and I Cor. xii. XI. 

Since the Father and the Son are admitted 
to be distinct persons, the association of the 
Holy Spirit with them in our baptism shows 
that He also is a distinct person. 

If the Holy Spirit is a divine Person, distinct 
from the Father and the Son, then to almost 
ignore Him as such, as some do who neverthe- 
less profess to be His worshippers, is to be 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



95 



guilty of great sin. He demands of us recog- 
nition and honor. 

The Holy Spirit is not the God-man. He 
did not subject Himself to the law which we 
broke, and become obedient unto death. He 
was not exalted to be the mediatorial King. It 
was the second person of the Godhead who was 
made of a woman, who was made under the 
law, who died for our sins, and who ascended 
to Heaven clothed in our nature, to sit at the 
right hand of God the Father. It is the son of 
man, while He is the Son of God, who, seated 
on His throne, nevertheless continues our great 
high Priest, and continually intercedes for us. 

But while the blessed Spirit does not execute 
these offices for us, He has His own office work 
to perform in our redemption. All Christians 
are more or less familiar with the office of the 
Spirit in the work of redemption. They know 
that He created the body and soul of Christ, 
Matt. i. 1 8, 20. Luke i. 35, and that He replen- 
ished our Lord with all spiritual gifts, Isai. ii. 
1, 2. They know that it is His office to reveal 
divine truth to men. All the Old Testament, 
and all the New Testament writers were the 



9 6 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



organs of the divine Spirit in the communica- 
tion of God's will to a lost world. Not only 
did He reveal divine truth when He inspired 
holy men of old to write the Scriptures, but 
He is a revealer of the truth to the souls of 
men by giving them a sight, a perception of 
its glorious qualities. By rousing the moral 
nature of unrenewed men and giving activity to 
it He causes the truth of God's word which 
they read, or hear read, to have great power 
over them — power to restrain their wickedness 
within bounds, and to convict them of sin. All 
believers, also, know that it is the office of the 
Spirit to regenerate souls — to make converts, 
L e. y to lead men to the exercise of faith and 
repentance, to take of the things of Christ and 
show them unto the soul, and to dwell in re- 
generated and believing men as a principle of 
a new divine and immortal life. 

But, while it is probable that all true converts 
who live where Bibles abound, early obtain a 
knowledge of the office of the Holy Spirit in 
the work of redemption, there are still some 
things pertaining to His work, to His relation 
to us, and to our relation to Him, and also to 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 97 

our duties to Him, which are, perhaps, seldom 
taught them at an early stage of their Christian 
course. 

I. They should be taught that the Holy 
Spirit is not only truly and strictly a Person 
equal in power and glory to the Father and the 
Son, but that He is a free Person, untrammelled 
by any laws which He has laid down to guide 
Himself by. Some seem to think that His in- 
fluence is communicated according to fixed 
laws. The convert cannot too soon be taught 
the voluntariness of His agency. Then he will 
understand his dependence, and that of all men, 
on the blessed Spirit. Then he will not be 
likely to adopt erroneous views in regard to 
the way in which revivals are brought about. 
A respectable writer, speaking of revivals, fool- 
ishly says : " No one has yet succeeded in def- 
initely stating their law, or bringing them un- 
der fixed conditions of time and circumstance." 
There is no law which controls the Holy Spir- 
it, either in sending revivals, or in accompa- 
nying with power His truth, read or listened 
to by the individual. It is of the utmost im- 
portance that we should all feel our dependence 
5 



9 8 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



on the good will of a Person. The influence of 
the Holy Spirit " is not the influence of a uni- 
formly acting force co-operating with the truth ; 
but that of a Person acting when and where He 
pleases ; more at one time than at another, 
sometimes in one way, and sometimes in 
another." 

2. We should all be deeply affected by the 
teachings of the Bible concerning those influ- 
ences of the Spirit which (because He is kind 
to our world) He exerts on all unrenewed 
men. We should be grateful for those influen- 
ces. This is a point to which the mind of the 
young believer should be directed, that he may 
early form the habit of recognizing the Spirit's 
common operations. There is got one out of 
the world of despair, who is not, in some degree, 
restrained by the Holy Spirit. We think men 
are bad, but what would they be if the Spirit of 
God should entirely withdraw from them as 
He does from the lost. " To the general influ- 
ence of the Spirit we owe all the decorum, 
order, refinement, and virtue existing among 
men. Mere fear of future punishment, the 
natural sense of right, and the restraints of 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 99 



human laws would prove feeble barriers to evil, 
were it not for the repressing power of the 
Spirit, which, like the pressure of the atmos- 
phere, is universal and powerful, although un- 
felt." The reason why the Holy Spirit does 
not restrain men, and keep within bounds their 
corruptions still more than He does, is because 
believers do not continually pray that His com- 
mon operations may be more powerful in our 
world. 

3. The convert should be urged to bear in 
mind continually, that we live under the dis- 
pensation of the Spirit, and to endeavor to take 
in the full meaning of this truth. He is the one 
indispensable Agent in the whole work of the 
application of the redemption of Christ to lost 
men. Everything is subordinate to this chief 
gift of God, since Christ's ascension to the 
Father. " He is the Spirit of the Father, and 
He is the Spirit of the Son, and He is the 
Spirit of the believer, the one common Spirit 
of them all, by whom they are made one in 
that sublime and mystical fellowship set forth 
in the latter part of our Lord's intercessory 
prayer, John xvii. He is the life-giving Spirit 



100 THE SAVIOUR'S COX VERTS. 



of souls dead in sin. He is the Spirit of con- 
viction, of illumination, of sanctification, of con- 
solation, of strength. He only reveals. Christ 
in the soul, and transforms it into His image. 
On this sacred Person all men are absolutely 
dependent."' It is the Spirit's work alone to 
conquer the world for Christ, by gathering 
souls into the Church. And, as the regener- 
ating act is the act of the divine Spirit ; so that 
instantaneous change in the soul by which it 
becomes perfectly holy in the article of death is 
effected by an act of the Holy Spirit alone. 

4. In addition to what has been said, there 
is a certain caution and a certain entreaty 
which should, with great earnestness, be ad- 
dressed to converts. They should be cautioned 
to avoid everything which would grieve the 
blessed Spirit, since we cannot grieve Him 
without being in imminent danger of losing His 
influences. It is easy to learn what does grieve 
Him. Only let the soul be constantly afraid 
of wounding and offending this infinitely con- 
descending, gracious, and powerful Friend, and 
the danger of committing this sin will be 
greatly lessened. The entreaty is, that they 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 1 01 



not only pray for the Holy Spirit, but that they 
ask that they may be filled with Him. Some 
saints receive this gift in larger measure than 
others, because they pray more for it. We 
should never be satisfied with what we now 
possess of the Spirit's presence and influences. 
Our Heavenly Father does not wish us to be- 
Our desires for this priceless blessing should be 
absolutely insatiable. 

6. It should be deeply impressed upon the 
mind of the young disciple, that the gospel is 
represented in the Scriptures under the form of a 
covenant ; , and that it is so called by Christ Him- 
self (Mat. xxvi. 28). The Saviour promises us the 
salvation of our souls, and we promise the blessed 
Saviour, in His strength, faith and obedience. 
Here is a covenant between Christ and the be- 
liever. At first we embrace this covenant in the 
secrecy of our souls, namely, by exercising faith, 
which is an inward act. Then, when we are 
baptized, we embrace it outwardly and visibly. 

All Christians know that the Scriptures use 
the word covenant, in setting forth the way of 
salvation, but few seem to be aware of the 
frequency with which they employ it. The 



102 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 

word should be dear to us, not only because it 
is in the Bible, but because the Holy Spirit, 
who is the author of the Scriptures, uses it so 
often. Christians should be just as familiar 
with the word covenant, as they are with the 
words " grace," " throne of grace," " heirs of 
the promise," " kingdom of God, " " redemp- 
tion," " precious faith," etc. 

Why do the Scriptures so prominently repre- 
sent the gospel under this form ? One reason 
undoubtedly is, to lead us constantly to bear 
in mind the fact that we must co-operate 
with God (in ways already pointed out) in the 
work of our salvation. When two persons 
enter into a covenant, each has conditions to 
perform. And so if Christ and the believer 
have covenanted with each other, not only has 
the condescending Saviour conditions to fulfil, 
but so has the believer. The Saviour will be 
faithful to His covenant-promise, which is to 
save us on condition that He continues to find 
in us faith and obedience to the very end. We 
must see to it that we, also, are faithful to our 
engagements. Otherwise we are covenant- 
breakers, and by the very terms of the cove- 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. IO3 

nant (which require co-operation on our part) 
salvation must be withheld from us. 

This covenant between Christ and His peo- 
ple is not made once for all. It is constantly- 
renewed. It is secretly renewed in every act 
of faith, and it is renewed publicly whenever we 
partake of the Lord's Supper. Let the con- 
vert be well instructed as to the existence and 
the nature of this covenant, and let him daily 
remember what the Bible teaches concerning 
it, and he may expect to be, all his life, a 
better Christian in consequence. If he is a 
parent let him remember, with gratitude, that it 
includes his children, so that its precious prom- 
ises are meant also for them. 

We have now presented some of the truths 
which the inspired writers of the Scriptures 
clearly and powerfully set forth, and seek to 
impress upon all classes of believers. If we are 
the means, by our instructions and example, of 
bringing converts to know and act upon these 
truths, we cannot but greatly benefit them. 
They may be expected to have a healthy relig- 
ious experience, to grow in grace, and to be 
useful members of the Church of Christ. 



CHAPTER IV. 



SOME OF THE CHRISTIAN'S DUTIES, DIFFICULTIES, 
PRIVILEGES AND A CTIVITIES, IN REGARD TO WHICH 
THE CONVERT NEEDS TO BE INSTRUCTED. 

DUTIES. 

U TIES which are also graces of the Spi- 
rit. — As in exercising the Christian graces 
we co-operate with the Holy Spirit ; as they 
are capable of being cultivated, and as they are 
only different ways in which our souls act in 
obeying God and serving men, they are duties 
as well as Christian graces. Now the convert 
needs to be instructed in regard to these duties. 
He should know what the Bible says about 
them. It speaks of them all, and some of 
them it dwells upon fully. Even the most 
careless reader of the Scriptures knows how 
much they dwell upon the grace of faith, and 
how incessantly they demand it of us as a duty. 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 105 



They insist likewise on the duty of exercising 
love. They speak of the love which is due to 
Christ, and command us to love the saints, 
-strangers, enemies, and all men. They tell us 
that we ought to manifest this love by clothing 
the naked, visiting the sick, sympathizing with 
the afflicted, covering the faults of others, and 
forgiving injuries. They command us to prac- 
tise the duty and grace of self-denial whenever 
our desires are evil in their nature, or when, 
though they may be innocent in themselves, 
they become sinful by being immoderate. 
They also teach us to practise the duty of self- 
denial whenever the gratification of our own 
wishes is inconsistent with the good of others. 
As for the duty and grace of liberality we find 
exhortations to it in Luke iii. 1 1 , xi. 41 ; Acts 
xx. 35 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 1 ; 1 Tim. vi. 17, 18. Pre- 
cious promises are made to liberality, and bless- 
ings are connected with it in Psalm cxii. 9 ; 
Prov. xi. 25, xxviii. 27 ; Eccle. xi. I, 2 ; Isa. 
lviii. 10 ; Psalm xli. 1 ; Prov. xxii. 9. We are 
to exercise liberality toward saints, the poor, 
strangers, all men, even enemies, in lending to 
those in want, and by forwarding missions. 



106 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



We are to give without ostentation, with sim- 
plicity, according to ability, and willingly. 
We are assured that if we give cheerfully, God 
will love us, 2 Cor. ix. 6, 7. In order to stimu- 
late us to liberality, the Scriptures present to 
us many exemplifications of it. See especially 
2 Cor. viii. 1-5. 

We should remember that all that we call 
our own, really belongs to the Lord Jesus, and 
that not only because He is God and the Creator 
and proprietor of all things, but because He 
is Mediatorial King. All things have been 
given by the Father to His Son Jesus, the God- 
man, that Jesus may make all tributary to the 
advancement of His kingdom. But He could 
not cause all things that exist to concur in the 
execution of this glorious design unless they 
were given to him in such a sense as to belong 
to him, in such a sense as to be his own. 
What we call our own, then, is only apparently 
ours — really it belongs to our Lord Jesus, that 
He may use it to further the interests of His 
kingdom. By His Father's gift He is the pos- 
sessor of the universe, with the creatures that 
live in it — rational and irrational, and with 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 107 



whatever they fondly look upon as their own. 
The blessed Jesus then possesses our money, 
our dwellings, our farms, our merchandise, our 
books, and our ornaments, and even our food 
and clothing are His. What, then, is there so 
very commendable in giving, or rather return- 
ing to Him the money which is already His, 
that it may be employed to build up His glori- 
ous kingdom ? It is His loving kindness to us 
which causes Him to look upon our contribu- 
tions in the light of gifts, and to reward us for 
making our contributions to His cause. The 
convert should be taught to view the matter 
thus, and to form the habit of doing so. 

Among the characteristics of the Christian 
which are both duties and graces, the Bible 
mentions " bowels of mercies, kindness, hum- 
bleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering ; 
forbearing one another, and forgiving one 
another, as Christ forgave us, together with 
charity, which is the bond of perfectness, ,, Col. 
iii. 12-14. The convert should be taught that 
he is to co-operate with the Holy Spirit in ex- 
ercising these. 

Secret duties. — The devotional reading of the 



108 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



Scriptures and closet prayer are the principal 
duties to be performed in secret. Both should 
be faithfully attended to. Both are means of 
grace. If they are but little prized and care- 
lessly attended to by the believer at the com- 
mencement of his course they are likely to be 
neglected ever afterward. 

There is much about prayer which the con- 
vert and the advanced believer know in com- 
mon. Both know that while God commands us 
to pray, it is infinite condescension in Him to 
permit us to have communion with Him. Both 
know that no one can be a Christian who never 
prays — that prayer is as essential to the spiritual 
life as the heart's pulsations are essential to the 
natural life. Both know that prayer is speaking 
to God, and that in it we confess sin, offer sup- 
plications, and express the feelings of love, ador- 
ation, and gratitude. Both know that one needs 
not be perfect before he can pray, but that 
prayer is an act of a sinner ; that the precise 
thing asked for is not always granted even when 
the prayer is acceptable to God and brings a 
blessing ; and that he who regards iniquity in 
his heart will not be heard. 



THE SAVIOUR'S COX VERTS. IO9 



But, while the advanced Christian and the 
convert alike understand these things, the older 
Christian knows better than the new convert 
does that prayer helps the soul onward in the 
Christian life ; that if, in times of temptation to 
despondency or sin, it prays fervently, it is 
" conscious of a strength to resist or to endure, 
which no effort of will, and no influence of mo- 
tives, ever could impart ; " that prayer is pow- 
erful to comfort, calm, lighten, and strengthen 
the distressed soul ; that, if one is conscious of 
a reluctance to engage in the act, he must not 
wait until a spirit of prayer comes over him, but 
must ask, and seek, and knock, and expect a 
blessing from God in the use of His appointed 
means ; that it is possible for the habit of prayer 
to be so strengthened that the act cannot be 
omitted without pain ; and that the Holy Spirit 
assists those who are faithful in attending to the 
duty. Now, whatever the more experienced be- 
liever has learned concerning prayer, he should 
be anxious to teach his younger brother. 

It would be an unspeakable benefit to the 
new convert could he be brought to feel the im- 
portance of having fixed regular times set apart 



110 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



for the purpose of praying in his closet. There 
is reason to believe that habits of systematic 
prayer are seldom persevered in, unless they are 
begun when one is first converted. Nor should 
these prayers of stated seasons and of the closet 
be very brief. When we withdraw from the 
world and set ourselves in the presence of God, 
w r e cannot always be warmed and revived in a 
moment. During the first few moments the 
thoughts are apt to wander, so that if we rise 
from our knees shortly after commencing our 
devotions we fail to reap the benefit of them. 
Let secret prayer be prolonged, and then peni- 
tence, and love, and all holy affections will at 
last manifest their existence. " No external 
activity, though pushed to the utmost, can make 
up for the want of closet devotion. If we would 
learn how Elijah, Daniel, Paul, Augustine, Lu- 
ther, Whitefield, Martyr, Payson, and Judson 
came to quit themselves like men, we must ac- 
company them to their wrestling prayers. The 
world has half destroyed us when we are too 
busy to pray. In closet devotion, unless it be 
formal, scanty, or hurried, the young Christian 
comes to the feet of the Lord, touches the hem 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



Ill 



of His garment, has communion with Him in 
regard to all his offices and divine graces. Such 
converse with God, especially over the inspired 
volume, secures against defection and error, pro- 
cures pardons, sprinkling of the expiatory blood, 
and the Spirit of adoption ; mortifies secret lurk- 
ing, insidious sins ; quickens the pulse of zeal 
and the pace of service ; arms for battle, lifts the 
courage, and sweetens the cross.'' 

When we read the Scriptures we find that the 
Christian soldier is expected not merely to use 
oral prayer in his closet, but to be very fre- 
quently employed in offering up mental and 
ejaculatory prayers. Thus the apostle says, in 
the 2d chapter of his Epistle to the Ephesians : 
" Stand, therefore, .... and take the sword 
of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying 
always with all prayer and supplication." God's 
people may and should commune with Him in 
their hearts during the busy hours of the day. 
When surrounded, moreover, by the social cir- 
cle, when seeking recreation, when walking the 
streets, when pursuing their journeys, when read- 
ing and studying, and when at their meals, their 
hearts should often go out after God, and they 



112 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



should inwardly beg His blessing, His help, His 
protection and guidance, and His Holy Spirit, 
Our blessed Redeemer tells us that men ought 
always to pray ; and, if we had a constant sense 
of God's nearness to us, and of our great neces- 
sities, we would thus pray, 

Another direction in regard to the duty of 
prayer, which should be given to converts, is, 
that they make supplication to God not with 
reference to great and important matters only, 
but with reference to matters which we are apt 
to look upon as of trifling import. This would 
only be obeying the injunction of the apostle, 
" Be careful for nothing ; but in everything by 
prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let 
your requests be made known unto God. ,, How 
often is it the case that, simply because the 
source of our anxiety seems of small moment, 
we are averse to asking for help and deliver- 
ance ; whereas, the apostle says, "In every- 
thing." Then, again, we are apt to decide, to 
plan, and to act, with reference to our family 
and business affairs, and even with reference to 
matters pertaining to Christ's kingdom, with- 
out seeking guidance and wisdom from above ; 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 113 



whereas, God's Word says, is Lean not to thine 
own understanding, in all thy ways acknowl- 
edge Him, and He will direct thy steps/' " If 
I have any affair/' says Cecil, " to transact with 
another, I must pray that God would be with 
us in that affair, lest we should blunder, and in- 
jure, and ruin each other." We should also 
pray daily for common mercies, which come 
regularly from the hand of God. Though we 
always expect to receive our daily bread, yet we 
should ever pray for it. When we forget our 
dependence on our Heavenly Father for these 
mercies, they are often withheld from us. 

Social duties. — The social duties which are of 
a devotional nature are those of attending the 
prayer-meeting, and of worshipping God in the 
Sanctuary. The convert cannot be too earnestly 
warned that, as regards neglecting these duties, 
the very beginnings of neglect are full of dan- 
ger. " He should be taught to magnify preach- 
ing and prayer-meetings, and positively to ab- 
hor the excuses made by so many for neglect 
and absence." 

There are social duties besides those- of a de- 
votional nature, concerning which the Scriptures 



114 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



give much instruction, but on these we have not 
space to dwell. 

Other duties deserving of mention will be 
considered when w r e come to speak of Chris- 
tian activities. 

DIFFICULTIES. 

We have mentioned some of the duties re- 
quired of Christ's disciples. In speaking now 
of the difficulties of living the Christian life, it 
would be proper to class among them the daily 
practice of these duties. In practising them 
there is indeed great reward, and yet it is no 
easy thing to do. The tendency to indolence 
must be resisted. The soul must constantly 
rouse itself to action. It must be energetic. It 
must put forth as great effort, as if everything 
depended upon its own exertions, and yet it 
must rely as fully and earnestly on God's help, 
as if no co-operation on its own part was re- 
quired. Well does the Christian know that he 
will fail to perform his duties, unless he exerts 
himself vigorously, while at the same time he 
relies continually on God to work within him, 
and he will earnestly, desire that in regard to so 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS, 



"5 



important a truth, his young brethren should 
reap the benefit of his own experience. 

Conflicts with spiritual enemies may also be 
classed among the Christian's trials and diffi- 
culties. As to the opposition he experiences 
from his spiritual enemies the convert is in a 
new world. It is true that Satan and the world 
have never in any time past been his real 
friends ; they have always been enemies to his 
salvation. They have, however, hitherto per- 
mitted him to live in peace. But now that he 
has left their service and enlisted in the service 
of the Saviour, their deadly hatred and oppo- 
sition to him and his course are fully aroused. 
And it is only by going back to the world and 
by yielding to Satan's yoke again, that he can 
cease to be tormented by their opposition. He 
has then begun a life of conflict which is at- 
tended with all the more danger to himself be- 
cause it is new to him. For his warfare having 
but recently begun he is inexperienced in it. 
He has not the strength and the wisdom which 
are so important to enable him to resist his 
enemies perseveringly and successfully, and to 
enable him also to understand and escape their 



Il6 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



wiles. His situation, therefore, should awaken 
our deepest interest in him, and we should be 
fully alive to the fact that he needs all the help 
we can give him. 

The only way in which our spiritual enemies 
can succeed in injuring us is by tempting us. 
Depravity is not entirely destroyed when the 
soul is regenerated. The principle of evil still 
exists within the soul, and it has great power. 
Our sinful thoughts and feelings are only the 
actings of this principle of evil — this depraved 
nature. Thus we are continually sinning with- 
out any temptations to sin. But we would not 
commit as many sins as we do, if we were never 
tempted. There is no compulsion. Tempta- 
tions have no compelling power. They do not 
force us to sin. When they prevail, therefore, 
we are not innocent and excusable. Still we 
are constantly sinning under their influence. 
Now the new convert needs to be instructed in 
regard to those temptations or solicitations to 
evil which every advanced Christian is so famil- 
iar with. 

Our affections and desires must have some 
objects to terminate on, and the world tempts 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



117 



lis by presenting objects to excite our inordin- 
ate or unholy affections and desires, as its hon- 
ors and pleasures. Large numbers yield to 
these allurements of the world, pursue the 
world's riches and honors, and are lost. The 
world also tempts the timid by its threats. 
These threatenings of the world's contempt and 
hatred are often more dreaded than death. 
Of course the world would have but little 
power to tempt were there no sin within us — 
were there no pride, envy, self-seeking, covet- 
ousness, ambition, sensuality, malice, etc., to 
act upon. Satan and the world depend for 
their success on the depravity within us. For 
Satan is our great tempter. He does not act 
alone. All fallen spirits are his subordinates, 
and he employs them all. Satan's power, and 
that of the evil spirits under him, to tempt, is 
dreadful. Repeatedly do the Scriptures cau- 
tion the people of Christ against Satan's de- 
vices. They teach us that Satan never sleeps, 
that he takes us when we are off our guard, 
and that his temptations are subtle and hard 
to be detected. It is fearful to think that no 
Christian ever passes a long time without be- 



Il8 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 

ing tempted by Satan, but it is comforting to 
know that our Saviour is infinitely more pow- 
erful than he is, and that He is willing to pro- 
tect us from being tempted and to deliver us 
when temptation comes. But besides appeal- 
ing to Christ as our Saviour, our King, to pro- 
tect us, we are to use those means of resistance 
—those weapons described in Eph. vi. 11-18. 

The afflictions which are peculiar to the 
Christian make it difficult for the believer to 
live in such a way as to glorify the Saviour and 
make His religion lovely in the eyes of the 
world. Therefore, the Christian's afflictions 
should be mentioned in any enumeration which 
may be made of the believer's difficulties, since 
there is great danger that while pressed down 
by them, he will manifest an unsubmissive and 
unbelieving spirit. That it is necessary that 
Christ's people should suffer is plainly taught 
us. " If so be that we suffer with Him," says 
the apostle, writing to the Roman Christians. 
" Beloved," says the Apostle Peter, " think it 
not strange concerning the fiery trial which is 
to try you : as though some strange thing hap- 
pened unto you, but rejoice, inasmuch as ye 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



119 



are partakers of Christ's sufferings ; that, when 
His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad 
also with exceeding joy." Thus it appears that 
we shall not share with Christ in His exaltation 
and glory, unless we are partakers of His suf- 
ferings. But the new convert, if left to himself, 
will not speedily learn how to interpret afflic- 
tions, nor how to behave under them, nor how 
to use them. If you yourself have been meas- 
urably faithful in following Christ you under- 
stand more about the peculiar trials of God's 
people than young believers do, and are in 
some degree competent to be of service to 
them. 

Ministers of the gospel too often pursue a dif- 
ferent course in their efforts to aid converts 
from that which our Saviour and the apostles 
took. They give little warning of the trials 
through which God calls all His people to pass. 
" If any man/' says our Lord, " will be my disci- 
ple, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, 
and follow me." And the apostle warned his 
converts that they must "through much tribu- 
lation enter into the kingdom of God. ,, But it 
may be asked, why should we, in the com- 



120 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



mencement of the Christian life, be told of 
coming trials which may discourage us. The 
answer to this is, that in the matter of being 
Christ's disciples it is better to count the cost 
in the very outset. When we know before- 
hand what we must encounter, we shall be bet- 
ter prepared for the difficulties which lie in the 
way, than if we start with false expectations. 
Besides, the service of Christ is a willing ser- 
vice, and this requires that the true state of the 
case should be fairly presented. It w r ould, in- 
deed, be contrary to the teachings of the Bible 
and also to the experience of God's people to 
affirm that a holy life is an unhappy one. 
None know what true happiness is except 
Christians. But to endure the afflictions which 
are the peculiar experience of God's children 
is perfectly compatible with the possession of 
that peace which the world knows not of. 

While the convert is plainly warned by the 
Saviour and His inspired servants of the diffi- 
culties and dangers which will beset his path, 
he is also encouraged by many promises. He 
is assured that the diligent use of the means of 
grace shall certainly be rewarded with success, 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 121 



and that the faithful servant of Jesus shall con- 
tinually have the sympathy, approval, and pres- 
ence of the Master, and the powerful aids of 
the Holy Spirit. 

PRIVILEGES AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 

Love, faith, self-knowledge, a heart to forgive 
enemies, a spirit of prayer, of liberality, and of 
self-denial are, as has been already said, Chris- 
tian duties. But they are also gifts. A knowl- 
edge of self must not be considered an exception. 
It also is a gift. It is as much a gift of the 
Holy Spirit as faith or love. It consists mainly 
in a sense of indwelling sin. The true believer 
does not dread to possess this knowledge or 
consciousness of his inward pollution and sin- 
ful weakness. On the contrary he is grateful 
to the Holy Spirit for enabling him to see his 
own vileness. He mourns to think of the de- 
ceitfulness of his heart which so long prevented 
him from perceiving the depth of the iniquity 
lodged within him. He desires to be less de- 
ceived than he even still is — in other words to 

have his sense of his sinfulness deepened, be- 
6 



122 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



cause he loves all truth even the real truth 
about himself. Another reason why he desires 
to grow in the knowledge of his vileness and 
ill desert is because such growth (as he has 
learned by experience) is accompanied with 
increasing love to Jesus. It is accompanied 
with steadily increasing love and gratitude to 
Jesus, while it is not attended with the least 
fear of suffering the punishment deserved. 

The indwelling sin of which the believer is 
conscious, occupies — if he is a spiritually mind- 
ed Christian — much of his attention, and he is 
constantly confessing it to God. But the love 
to God, and trust in Jesus which he is also con- 
scious that he possesses, occupy but little of 
his attention. He feels no inclination to con- 
template them, much less to admire them. 
Still, it is a great blessing to have a vivid con- 
sciousness of their existence, because this is one 
of the ways by which the Christian obtains an 
assurance of his own salvation, though it is true 
that he mainly rests his assurance on what is 
out of himself and not on what he finds within 
himself. 

In regard to this gift or privilege, which all 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 1 23 



converts should desire to possess — the privilege 
sometimes called the full assurance of hope — we 
have several things to say. (1.) It is enjoyed 
by some from the very beginning of their 
Christian course. In the case of some the 
Holy Spirit bears witness with their spirits that 
they are children of God, even when they are 
first regenerated. There is.no certainty, how- 
ever, that they will not lose their assurance un- 
less they continue to use the means of grace 
with energy — to be very prayerful, watchful, 
and diligent in practising universal holiness. 
The Protestant Reformers never seem to have 
lost that assurance of their own salvation, 
which was given them at the time of their con- 
version. (2.) One may be a true believer with- 
out possessing this gift; i.e., full assurance is 
not of the essence of faith. Let it be under- 
stood what we mean to deny, and what we in- 
tend to affirm by this proposition. I deny that 
if I trust in Jesus to save me an assurance that 
He loves me is essential to this trust. But I do 
not deny, but affirm, that some degree of belief 
that He loves me is essential to the existence of 
this trust. And my feeble belief that I am the 



124 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



object of His love will rise to an assurance of it 
when my trust in Him as my Saviour becomes 
very vigorous. Our Catechism defines faith in 
Jesus Christ to be a saving grace, whereby we 
rest upon Christ for salvation. Now how can 
I truly rest upon Christ for my salvation with- 
out having a particle of belief that I am an 
object of His love. To be totally destitute of 
belief in His love for me, and yet to rest even 
feebly upon Him to save me is an impossibility. 
But, as was said, a full assurance that He loves 
us does not necessarily enter into our faith — in 
other words, is not essential to the existence of 
faith, as is proved by the experience of very 
many of God's people. (3.) Some are quite 
confident that they are in the favor of God and 
estate of salvation, who are mistaken notwith- 
standing. " That unregenerate men, beguiled 
by the natural desire for happiness, flattered 
by self-love, and betrayed by a spirit of self- 
righteousness, and self-confidence ; should some- 
times indulge an unfounded assurance of their 
own gracious condition, is rendered antece- 
dently probable from what we know of human 
nature, and rendered certain as a fact from com- 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 12$ 



mon observation, and from the declarations of 
Scripture/' (4.) The attainment of this assur- 
ance is a Christian duty. It is made a duty in 
Scripture. In Heb. vi. 11, we are exhorted 
" to show the same diligence to the full assur- 
ance of hope unto the end." We are convinced 
that its attainment is a duty, when we consider 
also what naturally and inevitably accompanies 
it — desires for still more intimate fellowship with 
God, increased diligence in efforts to obey and 
glorify the Saviour, humility, gratitude, and lib- 
eration from that anxiety about our own spiritual 
state which stands in the way of our helping 
others. (5.) The directions which we would 
give to converts as to the way of arriving at 
a full assurance of their own salvation are 
these : 

First. Obtain clear views of the way of salva- 
tion, especially of the truth that believers in 
Christ are free from the law as prescribing the 
terms of acceptance with God, while the Sav- 
iour's righteousness avails to justify them ; they 
being bound now and forever to obey the per- 
fect law as a rule of duty. Contemplate these 
truths long and often, with prayer, that they 



126 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



may command your full and joyful acquiescence, 
and may never be lost sight of. 

Second. Remember that what authorizes us 
to come to Christ is not any peculiar experience 
which we may have in our souls, but God's free, 
perfectly generous, unconditional promise to ac- 
cept all coming sinners — that when we wait un- 
til we find in ourselves some peculiar experience 
as our warrant for coming, we just hinder our- 
selves from being saved. And, remembering 
this, come (the coming is to be constantly re- 
peated), RELYING on this promise as thus per- 
fectly free and unconditional. 

Third. Since your trust in Christ is capable 
of being greatly strengthened, use every means 
to strengthen it pointed out by the inspired 
writers, especially prayer. For, as soon as 
your grasp of Christ is a powerful grasp, you 
will have not a faint belief, but a full assurance 
that he loves you. 

Fourth. Make much of the verse, Rom v = 5, 
w r here we are told that the Holy Spirit produces 
in the believer an immediate consciousness that 
he is the object of God's love. The words in 
that verse are, " And hope maketh not ashamed, 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 12J 



because the love of God [God's love to us] is 
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost 
which is given unto us." Pray very importu- 
nately that the Holy Spirit would give you this 
inward persuasion that God loves you. Ask 
until you receive. 

Fifth. Grow in grace, in order to which be ex- 
ceedingly diligent in using the means of grace. 

It was said that when faith, the faith which 
has Christ for its object, the faith which truly 
lays hold upon Him, is exceedingly strong and 
active, there will be a full assurance of His love. 
How precious then is this faith ! What can we 
more earnestly desire than that it should not 
only be preserved, but daily increase in power. 
It is, however, the special work of the Holy 
Spirit to watch over this life-giving faith in 
Jesus, to nourish it, and make it more and more 
vigorous. Let every convert, then, unweariedly 
and importunately entreat his Heavenly Father 
to give His Holy Spirit, pleading His own prom- 
ise to give this blessing to those who ask Him. 
We have already said that the witnessing of the 
Spirit, the shedding abroad by the Spirit of 
God's love in the heart, must be sought by 



128 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



prayer. In no other way can the witnessing 
of the divine Comforter be obtained. 

In regard to a full assurance of salvation, we 
think some sad mistakes are made by many. 

I. It is a mistake to suppose that the piety 
of those who enjoy a full assurance is different 
in its nature from the piety of those who have 
not attained to an assurance. It is claimed by 
a certain class of Christians that their religious 
experience has undergone such a change that 
they now have no occasion to cry " Who shall 
deliver me from the body of this death ! 99 They 
have passed out of the bondage of the seventh 
chapter of the epistle to the Romans into the 
sweet liberty of the eighth. They are inwardly 
conscious that they exercise a new faith which 
receives Christ for everything. Only to those 
who possess this new faith — who have thus en- 
tered " by the right principle upon the process 
of sanctification," can the full assurance of their 
own salvation belong. Thus, the spiritual life 
of those who have this inward certainty differs 
in kind from that of those who have it not. 

The very statement of this error is its own 
refutation. We all feel that the life of God in 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



129 



the soul of one believer is necessarily the same 
that it is in the souls of all other believers. All 
who are united to Christ by the indwelling of 
the Holy Spirit possess the same life which 
abides in Him. But all believers are united to 
Christ by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit ; 
and therefore all believers, those assured of 
their own salvation and those without this as- 
surance, have precisely the same life. 

2. It is a mistake to feel certain that only a 
few believers possess assurance. 

Did we know that a very great degree of 
piety is essential to its possession, there might 
be some reason for our having this certainty. 
But the Holy Spirit can give assurance to one 
in whom spiritual life is not remarkably vigor- 
ous, and this assurance thus bestowed may lead 
to greater attainments in holiness. Doubtless 
many Christians of great experience and deep 
piety often have anxiety and fears which many 
who are less holy are free from. At any rate, 
there are thousands of truly contrite souls, and 
to whom the Saviour will say in that day, 
"Come, ye blessed of my Father/' whose fu- 
ture prospects are obscured because of their 
6* 



I30 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 

doubts respecting their own spiritual condition ; 
while there may be many inferior to these in 
experience and depth of piety, but who have 
the simple, implicit faith of little children, ac- 
companied with assurance of hope. 

3. It is a mistake to suppose that it is unsafe 
and even dangerous for Christians to be assured 
of their own salvation. 

The enjoyment of assurance would, indeed, 
be unsafe and injurious, did it have a tendency, 
as some suppose it has, to lead to carelessness, 
inattention to the duties of religion, pride, or 
presumption. But it has no such tendency. 
In the case of true Christians, genuine assur- 
ance leads to unfeigned humility, increased dili- 
gence in the practice of holiness, and constant 
longings after more intimate fellowship with 
God. It is only when assurance is spurious 
that its effects are self-righteousness, neglect 
of duty, indulgence in sin, hardness of heart, 
and selfishness. Let no one suppose that 
either ardent love for Jesus, lively gratitude for 
salvation, tender pity for the perishing, or any 
other fruit of holiness, will be wanting in one 
who is fully assured of God's love for him, pro- 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 13 1 

vided his assurance is produced by the Holy 
Spirit. 

It would, also, be attended with loss to its 
possessor, did it cause him to be in a great 
measure exempt from affliction. There are 
graces which could never be exercised, except 
under affliction. God sends trials upon all His 
people, because it is necessary that they should 
experience them. Assurance has no tendency 
to dull, natural sensibility. 

Nor could any one, without injury to himself, 
be in possession of this gift or privilege, did it 
have the effect of turning away his attention 
from the sin which dwells within him. Some 
appear to think that assurance has this effect, 
and, indeed, it would seem as if the very 
reason why they value it so highly, is the fact 
that it introduces its possessor, as they sup- 
pose, into a state in which, if there is any sin 
remaining within him, it no longer afflicts him. 
But one feeling his own exceeding sinfulness 
may be burdened, grieved, afflicted without hav- 
ing any alarm or painful fears of suffering the 
penalty due to sin. If I am assured that Jesus 
loves me, and will never cease to love me — that 



132 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 

even while I am here in the body, my perfect 
salvation has had its beginning, and, that now 
I am forever safe, it is impossible for me to be 
distressed by fears that sin will ever triumph 
over me. I know it never will. I even know 
that the time is near when I shall be made per- 
fect in holiness. But I may still — indeed, I must 
still — be burdened and afflicted by the con- 
sciousness of indwelling corruption. If I am 
deeply in love with holiness, and truly hate sin, 
how can my assurance of my own salvation 
make me cease to grieve that that which I hate 
is ever present with me, is ever within me. I 
must be afflicted, and there will be times when 
I shall be full of sorrow. " Although the re- 
generate believer is not in the total and hope- 
less slavery of the unregenerate man, he is yet 
under so much of a bondage as to prevent per- 
fect obedience ; to make him poor in spirit, 
' weary and heavy laden,' and to force from 
him the cry : ' O, wretched man, who shall 
deliver me?" ,# If the principle of holiness, 
and the principle of sin exist together in the 



* Dr. Shedd's (i Com. on Romans." 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 133 



soul, they must oppose each other ; there must 
be a " warring/' Rom. vii. 23 ; the believer's 
whole life must be a conflict. But even while 
he struggles against sin he can exclaim : i( I 
thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord," 
because he knows that this conflict is not to 
result in the victory of sin, but in the triumph 
of grace. Some seem to think that to be con- 
scious of indwelling sin, and to feel, with much 
grief, its great power, is the same as to be un- 
der condemnation/' whereas one of the strong- 
est proofs that a man is free from condemnation, 
is that he not only admits in w r ords, that sin 
dwells within him, but is deeply conscious of it, 
is burdened by it, and perseveringly struggles 
against it. 

It is not, then, attended with danger or any 
evil whatever for a true believer to have an as- 
surance of his own salvation. 

4. It is a mistake to suppose that, where one 
has spiritual life abiding within him, the best 
way for him to arrive at an assurance of it is 
to look within for the purpose of examining his 
own heart. At the very time when he is look- 
ing away from himself to Christ, and is dwell- 



134 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



ing long and constantly on the sweetness, glory, 
and loveliness of Jesus, and on His infinite kind- 
ness and grace, he may have in his soul a con- 
sciousness that he loves Christ, and an assur- 
ance that Christ loves him. You are, indeed, 
commanded to examine yourself, and you must 
obey the command. But where did you ever 
learn, that when the apostle, or rather the Holy 
Spirit sets this duty before us, he meant that it 
is to be performed by looking within, by acts of 
introspection. There are much better ways of 
examining ourselves than that. If our object in 
examining ourselves is to see whether we are 
Christians or not, we should, instead of analyz- 
ing our experiences, inquire whether we love 
and worship Jesus as God, receive His doc- 
trines, trust in His sacrifice and intercession, 
obey, trust in, and serve Him as our King. We 
shall be assisted to answer these questions, if 
we place the divine object of the Christian's 
faith and love before our minds, and contem- 
plate His Person, His perfections, His wonder- 
ful, sweet condescension and love. As for ex- 
amining ourselves to see whether our conduct 
be consistent, and our motives pure, and 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 1 35 

whether our progress in the divine life is what 
it ought to be, that should be a daily exercise. 
We should call ourselves to account every day, 
to see where we have failed. # 

5. It is a mistake to suppose that, unless one 
has a settled assurance, he never can have mo- 
ments of gladness and peace. 

Even believers who are not fully assured of 
their salvation have received a new nature, 
have been justified, and made the children of 
God, and joint heirs with Christ of eternal 
glory. They, therefore, cannot be destitute 
of comfort. They have more or less of the 
spirit of adoption. They often enjoy prayer. 
There are times when their graces are in live- 
ly exercise. They are happy in doing good, 
and they enjoy the society of their fellow Chris- 
tians. 

It seems unnecessary to spend any time in 
pointing out the advantages which those believ- 
ers who enjoy this assurance have over those 
who are destitute of it. No man or angel ever 
did or ever will enjoy a greater good than to 



* Dr. Hodge's " Conference Papers." 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



be loved by Christ. How delightful and ani- 
mating, then, to have a perfect assurance in my 
soul that He loves me, provided this assurance 
is not spurious, but is produced by the Holy 
Spirit. Besides, is it not natural to suppose 
that the Christian who possesses this assurance 
will oftener than others have spiritual peace 
and joy, great love and thankfulness to God, 
and buovancv, strength, and cheerfulness in the 
practice of obedience in every department of 
duty ? Xo wonder the Bible commands all to 
strive to possess this gift. Let no convert put 
off using the means to secure it. Nothing is 
gained by delay. Xo one has a right to tell 
you that you must wait long before the bless- 
ing can be yours. 

That Bunyan believed in the possibility of 
even new converts possessing a full assurance 
of their acceptance, is evident from what he 
says of Christian's roll, given him by one of the 
shining ones soon after he began his pilgrim- 
age. It will be remembered that when Chris- 
tian came up to the cross his burden loosed 
from off his shoulders and fell from him. Then 
he stood awhile to look and wonder. M Now," 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 137 

says Bunyan, "as he stood looking and weep- 
ing, behold three shining ones came to him and 
saluted him with ' Peace be to thee/ So the 
first said to him : ' Thy sins be forgiven thee ; ' 
the second stripped him of his rags and clothed 
him with a change of raiment ; the third also 
set a mark on his forehead, and gave him a roll 
with a seal upon it, which he bid him look on 
as he ran, and that he should give it in at the 
Celestial Gate." It was because this roll was 
the assurance of his life and acceptance, that he 
so greatly bewailed its loss through his sinful 
sleep at the pleasant arbor. 

We are on the subject of the Christian's privi- 
leges, which all converts should desire to possess, 
and the one on which we have chiefly dwelt is 
that of an assurance of salvation. In addition 
to this there are privileges which many — both 
those who have received, and those who have 
not received an assurance of their own salva- 
tion — enjoy, as, great liberty in prayer ; clear, 
spiritual discernment ; frequent gracious prompt- 
ings, and movements of the indwelling Spirit; 
strength to yield to those promptings and thus 
to avoid grieving the Spirit ; great ease and 



133 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



readiness in interceding for others ; the power 
of turning the thought Godward and heaven- 
ward ; deliverance from fear of death ; wisdom 
in counselling and comforting others in their 
spiritual difficulties ; the happiness of being the 
objects of the love of the most spiritually mind- 
ed, etc. When we have power given us to see 
things of a temporal nature in their true light, 
in the light of the Bible, in the light of eternity, 
in the light in which God and angels look upon 
them, we are highly favored and enjoy a great 
privilege. We are highly privileged when the 
Holy Spirit enables us to glory in infirmities — 
to see that our afflictions which weigh us down, 
are working out for us a far more exceeding and 
eternal weight of glory. 

The more closely we walk with God the 
greater are our privileges. 

The high privileges of the believer are within 
the reach of all God's people, and the attention 
of converts should be called to them, and they 
should endeavor to attain them and should be 
encouraged to do so. 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



139 



ACTIVITIES. 

The convert is not sufficiently aware of the 
importance of beginning to exert himself at 
once for the good of others. His life flows in 
one current. He is apt to be engrossed in one 
thing. It is characteristic of converts to be 
much absorbed in their own happiness and 
blessedness. They forget that in a good sense 
they are now to be proselyters. This truth was 
understood by the first converts. So active in 
efforts to save their fellow men were the hun- 
dred and twenty disciples in Jerusalem (Acts i. 
15) that before the lapse of many years, Christ's 
disciples were numerous in all parts of the Ro- 
man Empire. Many suppose that Christ's great 
commission was addressed exclusively to minis- 
ters, but this is an error. Each church member 
should consider that commission as binding him 
to disciple others to the extent of his power. 
How affecting is the call to labor for the salva- 
tion of souls. The harvest is still plenteous and 
the laborers are still few. 

We will first speak of efforts for the salvation 
of individuals. All true Christians exert them- 



140 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



selves to some extent to further the interests of 
the Saviour's kingdom, but most fail to put 
forth personal efforts for individuals. And yet 
it is obvious to all that the kingdom of Christ 
can be extended in our world only by the ac- 
cession of individuals. " His blood avails not 
to the salvation of men in the mass, but to 
those who individually repent of sin, and accept 
of His mercy. The Holy Spirit strives with men, 
and sanctifies them only as individuals. It is as 
individuals that the inhabitants of our world 
must be raised to heaven or sink to hell. Yet 
to how great an extent are the prayers of Chris- 
tians offered, indefinitely for the conversion of 
the world as a whole, while the salvation of no 
one individual is the object of their personal 
and persevering endeavors." 

Not merely want of zeal and of warmth of 
piety hinder some Christians from addressing 
the impenitent, but they suppose it to be a work 
which calls for superior talent or knowledge on 
the part of him who performs it, and they imag- 
ine that they are not possessed of these qualifi- 
cations. They are entirely mistaken. No re- 
markable gift of speech is required. All one 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 141 



needs is to have a heart for the work, and that 
can be obtained. A single sentence, uttered 
with earnestness and feeling, has often proved 
an arrow from God's bow. The shipmaster 
who spoke to Jonah (Jonah i. 6) was probably 
no remarkable specimen of intelligence or tal- 
ent, and yet he was able to cry, " What mean- 
est thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God." 
Let not the convert put off speaking to the im- 
penitent under the impression that he lacks the 
needed talent. He has the gift in sufficient 
measure, and it is capable of being improved 
by use. It is also his privilege to pray for an 
increase of skill in addressing the unconverted. 

" The church of modern times has never 
yet called into action one fiftieth part of the 
strength which it really possesses. Among its 
members there are hundreds, there are thou- 
sands who have done nothing for Christ. What- 
ever may be its cause, this silence of Christians 
is the undoing of thousands. It may be indo- 
lence, it may be timidity, it may be mistaken 
affection, it may be mere procrastination with- 
out any assignable reason, but its results are 
the same, and those results are tremendous be- 



142 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 

yond description. Whatever may be the piety 
and devotedness of ministers of the gospel the 
world will remain unsaved, while the conver- 
sion of sinners is left to them. To warn the 
sinner of the doom which awaits him, and to 
warn him now, while yet there remains a way 
of escape, is therefore the sacred obligation of 
all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. 
It is true that not one has died in his sins but 
has justly perished by his own iniquity, but that 
is no excuse for us. The guilt of those who 
perish cannot justify our negligence. Every 
Christian must feel his own responsibility and 
make it one subject of his daily prayers that 
God would make him instrumental in winning 
souls. Devoted, personal, and unremitting ef- 
fort on the part of the whole body of the faith- 
ful, would bring down such a blessing that there 
would be no room to contain it, the wilderness 
and the solitary place would be glad, and the 
desert would rejoice and blossom as the rose ; 
churches and pastors would be doubled and 
quadrupled ; repeated success would embolden 
the timid and encourage the desponding, and 
each new convert would immediately become a 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



143 



valuable auxiliary to the great cause of truth 
and holiness." 

As this little book may fall into the hands of 
some new disciple, we would urge on him the 
importance of beginning at once to seek to save 
souls. Avoid everything which experience 
teaches you will make it difficult to address the 
unconverted. 

Do not forget relatives while exerting your- 
self for others. 

Be encouraged by the thought that while you 
are endeavoring to save others your own soul 
is receiving benefit. 

Think of the joy of meeting those you have 
been the means of saving in heaven. "Your 
worldly labors, however unblamable, can carry 
no fruit into heaven. Whereas your labors in 
the cause of Christ are all to reappear in that 
day. The souls you may convert from the er- 
ror of their ways, and save from death, shall be 
with you in heaven, and to all eternity. Faint 
not, therefore, but boldly face and undertake 
your duty in reference to this department of 
Christian activity." 

Not only would you be honored and blessed 



144 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



should you be instrumental in the conversion 
of souls, but the Saviour would thereby be 
glorified. This motive should be stronger than 
any other which can influence you to seek the 
salvation of your fellow men. Whenever a sin- 
ner is saved — saved in spite of the fearful diffi- 
culties in the way, and the opposition of Satan 
and all his hosts, Jesus is victorious — He is glori- 
fied, a new star is added to His crown. Perhaps 
our prayers and labors for the conversion of 
men would more frequently be blessed to their 
salvation, were we, in the efforts which we put 
forth, more influenced by the desire that our 
blessed Redeemer should be glorified. 

Pray much that you may be successful, but 
do not be discouraged, should you not always 
succeed. Disappointment in one quarter may 
be counterbalanced by success in another. 

Use various means. " An affectionate and 
faithful letter to an unconverted acquaintance 
is often the very message to be owned of the 
Spirit. ,, But whatever means you may employ, 
follow up your effort by subsequent endeavors. 
For your encouragement remember the great 
usefulness which has attended the persevering 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



145 



exertions of many, no more gifted or fitted for 
the work than you are. 

If you are faithful in efforts to save your fel- 
low men, you will set an example to Christians 
around you which will have its effect. Even 
ministers may be stirred up to exertion, and 
make greater efforts for the souls of individuals, 
when they witness the activity of the Church's 
converts. 

Seek to have an intense conviction of the 
truth of all that is said in the Bible, both as to 
the worth of the soul, and the misery of impeni- 
tent sinners. A deep conviction of the truth is 
necessary to strengthen your hands. Your 
spiritual power as a laborer must be feeble if 
you only half believe God's assurances, while 
if you believe mightily, your influence over 
others for God will be correspondingly great. 

Remember that while God alone can give us 
anxiety for sinners, he zvill give us that feel- 
ing, if we sincerely desire it, and if at the same 
time we are making efforts to save men. It is 
said of a certain faithful laborer, (Harlan Page), 
that f| his anxiety for individuals was frequently 
such that he could not rest, but would leave 
7 



146 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



his business to seek an interview with them, or 
address them by letter, or pray for them. At 
the close of religious meetings his mind would 
often become intensely fixed upon the conver- 
sion of some impenitent individual. He would 
address him with great solemnity, urging an 
immediate compliance with the terms of the 
gospel ; and as his friend accompanied him 
homewards, such w r as sometimes the pressure 
upon his heart, that they would seek a retired 
spot, and there, even in the depths of winter, 
kneel and plead with God, for the person's sal- 
vation." Surely this feeling of concern for 
others was God's gift to him, while he was in 
the way of duty. 

Frequently seek out and converse with those 
who are absolutely uncared for. Go even to 
the outcast. "It is my rule/' said a good 
man, " to go not only to those who need me, 
but to those who need me most." It is a mis- 
take to presume that those belonging to the 
worst layers of society, are necessarily devoid 
of all thought about religion. With their sense 
of misery they often have a tormenting con- 
sciousness of guilt. Most truly has it been said 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 147 



that these abandoned ones are often lashed and 
stung by remorse. Go sometimes to the poor 
creatures, viewed, alas ! by most, with loathing, 
and tell them that it is a faithful saying, that 
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sin- 
ners. 

You have never been ignorant of the truth 
that it is faith in Jesus which is the condition 
of salvation. You have recently, however, 
known, as a matter of experience, that the great 
thing is to have this faith. You are prepared, 
therefore, to show the convinced sinner what he 
must do to be saved. Tell him that he is to be- 
lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ. Some may have 
told him that submission to God is the condi- 
tion. Others, that giving his heart to God is 
the condition. These acts of the soul are in- 
deed duties, and they are holy acts, but neither 
of them is the condition of salvation. We are 
taught in the Bible that it is faith. And the 
faith which is necessary is the faith which has 
the blessed Saviour for its object. Tell the in- 
quirer to trust in Jesus, to come to Him, to lay 
hold upon Him. This counsel proceeds on the 
assumption that you will (if you are really ac- 



148 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



tive in this work), sometimes be called to help 
the convinced and anxious sinner as well as 
warn the unawakened. " Numerous as are the 
ranks of the unconverted, they will most surely 
and rapidly disappear when once the passion for 
saving souls takes possession of Christ's Church 
on earth ; when in the warehouse and in the 
shop, in the factory and in the mill, in the gran- 
ary and in the field, on the roadside and at the 
fireside, in the city and in the country, on the 
sea and on the shore, men and women are 
eagerly watching to win some soul to Christ ; 
when love for the world shall burn in each 
heart, prayer for the world ascend from each 
lip, bounty for the world drop from each hand, 
the messenger of mercy gush from every tongue. 
Then, O then, shall linger no longer the salva- 
tion of a ruined race." 

Thus far we have spoken of personal efforts 
for the souls of individuals. But there are 
powerful agencies employed by the Church to 
advance the Saviour's kingdom, as : 

Those societies which go by the names of 
the Foreign, and Domestic Missionary Socie- 
ties.: i. j ■■ "/ ^S ? A>UiMU>^ 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 149 



The Bible, Tract, and Seamen's Societies. 

Societies to aid Freedmen, Orphans, the 
wretched poor in cities, etc., etc. 

The convert should at once begin to be identi- 
fied with these departments of Christian activity. 
If he stands aloof from them at the commence- 
ment of his Christian course, the probability- 
is that he always will. There is scarcely one 
who cannot do something in connection with 
some of these agencies. Let the convert imme- 
diately begin to read their reports and periodi- 
cals, that he may keep himself acquainted with 
all the work they are performing. If practica- 
ble let him offer himself to work for some of 
them. " The Lord prosper," says Dr. Archibald 
Alexander, " the self-denying company of tract 
distributors, who are seen penetrating into the 
darkest recesses of vice and infamy, bearing in 
their hands precious tracts, and whose lips are 
ever ready to pour forth, from a benevolent hearty 
words of exhortation, admonition, and encourage- 
ment. Let no one suppose that the missionary 
and the Bible supersede the necessity of tracts. 
These contain the very same truths which are 
revealed in the Bible,, and it matters little how 



150 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 

this is conveyed to the mind; if attended by 
the Holy Spirit, it is able to make men wise 
unto salvation, whether heard from the lips of 
a preacher, or read in an evangelical tract. 
Nor ought it to be objected that a large por- 
tion of the tracts and religious books which are 
circulated are never read, and consequently 
produce no effect. If one in a thousand is read 
with profit, there is a rich compensation for all 
the expense incurred." 

There is no better way in which the convert 
can aid these agencies than by pouring out the 
most earnest prayers for their success and pros- 
perity. He certainly will statedly contribute 
of his means to support them in their work, if 
he has the least spark of love for the cause of 
the blessed Jesus. He may also be expected 
to speak on their behalf whenever opportunity 
offers, and to try, in every other way in his 
power, to interest others in them. 

One of the means, as has long been known, 
of bringing out the latent talent of young be- 
lievers is the Sunday-school. It is the method 
of usefulness which first presents itself, when 
converts are brought into the Church and look 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 15 1 

around for a way to do good. Young church 
members have lately praised God for their sal- 
vation. " Who ought to be more full of eager- 
ness to work in His cause, and what work can 
be named at once so promising, so simple, and 
so accessible ? The young professor who be- 
gins early, works earnestly, and continues long, 
actually effects, upon the successive classes that 
come under his care, changes which are of in- 
calculable benefit to the land and the Church. 
When lie gathers a new class of poor children , 
and keeps them together for years, and labors 
for their souls, he does more to hold up the 
hands of his pastor and elders, than by any and 
all other means which can easily be thought of. 
And what a propelling force does the company 
of young disciples give to their Church, who, 
after conference and prayer, fix upon a new 
locality, and there, in some destitute vicinage, 
institute a new Sunday-school. " 

The fact should not be concealed from the 
convert that, in whatever way a Christian serves 
Christ, the service is against nature. " He 
greatly errs who enters the Christian course as 
a career of ease, or who expects a bed of 



1 52 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



roses. From beginning to end it is against 
the stream. It is against the world. It is 
against the devil. It is against ourselves. In 
the natural world mountains are not ascended 
without many a panting effort, and many a 
moment of weakness ; but no earthly moun- 
tains are so difficult as those we have to trav- 
erse in our spiritual march. The Christian 
course is a life of warfare, and of labor within 
and without. But, if the whole life of our 
adorable Lord was one bearing of the cross, 
surely we ought to make it the law of our ex- 
istence here to bear the yoke which He lays 
upon us. There is such weakness in human 
nature, that even our most delightful duties 
become a burden, except so far as we receive 
continual supplies of grace to quicken and re- 
fresh us." Such supplies of grace, however, 
are promised. Moreover, the laborer who is 
never weary in well doing, who is always 
abounding in the work of the Lord, is .assured 
by God, Himself, that he cannot labor in vain 
(i Cor. xv. 58). The desire of his heart to be 
useful to precious souls and to the Church of 
God, which He purchased with His own blood, 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 1 53 

shall certainly be gratified. In addition to this, 
his heart is cheered by the certainty that, if he 
continues to serve the Master faithfully unto 
death, he shall be greeted with the ravishing 
welcome : " Well done, good and faithful ser- 
vant : enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 
7* 



CHAPTER V. 



FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES SPECIAL ATTENTION HAS 
BEEN GIVEN BY THE CHURCH TO CATECHIZING 
THE YOUNG, 



HERE are those who are unable to remem- 



ber the time when they did not love God, 
and trust in Jesus for their salvation. Such, in 
almost all cases, had faithful parents — parents 
who, recognizing the truth that the offspring of 
believers are embraced in the covenant, with 
tender solicitude, and many believing prayers, 
trained them up in the nurture and admonition 
of the Lord. By the very birth of this class, 
the Church is constantly increasing ; and our 
plan of treatment permits us to include them, 
while they continue to be of tender age, among 
the number of converts. But, there are still 
others, not strictly converts — the young and 
ignorant who abound wherever the Church ex- 




THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



155 



ists, and upon whom she has some hold — whom 
she may justly hope will become her converts 
with proper treatment. That to give instruc- 
tion to all such, as well as to her baptized mem- 
bers, is the Church's duty will not be denied, 
nor will it be questioned that one of the meth- 
ods of teaching them, which she is bound to 
pursue, is that of implanting in their minds the 
doctrines of Christianity by means of short com- 
pends and systems. 

Sabbath-schools need not stand in the way 
of this method of instruction, nor need this doc- 
trinal instruction interfere with the work of Sab- 
bath-schools. The young and ignorant cannot 
be indoctrinated as they should be, either by 
Sabbath-school teaching, or by means of elabo- 
rate and continued discourses from the pulpit. 

Oral instruction in a familiar way, (the pupils 
being sometimes required to recite what w r as 
said), was held in the highest estimation in the 
early Church not only as the means of instilling 
divine truth into the minds of converts, but for 
the religious teaching of those who were with- 
out the pale of the Church. 

Whenever the early Church writers allude to 



156 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



the catechizing which prevailed in primitive 
times, they use the word in the sense of initia- 
ting the ignorant in Christian rudiments, wheth- 
er by question and answer or otherwise. For 
the method of question and answer, although 
closely connected with catechizing, and of great 
importance, is not essential to it. 

Those to whose presiding care the flock was 
committed, felt the importance of systemati- 
cally instructing by catechizing all the chil- 
dren of Christians, and all who applied for 
admission into the Church from among the 
heathen. A class of catechumens was at- 
tached to every church, and formed a kind 
of school, in which the first principles of 
religion were inculcated, and certain formulas 
of Christian doctrine were carefully committed 
to memory, together with portions of the sacred 
Scriptures. Thus, even in the beginnings of 
the Church's existence, she understood her vo- 
cation. She felt that her great duty was to 
teach. Accordingly she was, as she ought al- 
ways to be, like a great school. " The fcarrj^ov- 
pevos " (says Dr. J. W. Alexander, " Fam. Let- 
ters/ 1 vol. 2, p. 170) " was under schooling, long 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



157 



watched, slowly indoctrinated.'* And he adds, 
*■ The Church, as a school, has declined ; 
hence, the Sunday-school has been built up 
alongside.'* 

Those who gave special instruction to the 
catechumens were called catechists. The cate- 
chumens embraced people of all ranks and of 
all grades of culture, so that it was often ne- 
cessary that the teachers should be men thor- 
oughly instructed and disciplined. At the head 
of the catechetical school of Alexandria, in 
Egypt, were men of the highest character for 
learning and piety. " It had at first but a sin- 
gle teacher, afterward, two or more, but no 
fixed salary or special buildings. The teachers 
gave their instructions in their dwellings. The 
first superintendent of this school known to us 
was Pantaenus, who afterward labored as a mis- 
sionary in India. He was followed by Clement 
to A.D. 202, and Clement by Origen to A.D. 
232, who raised the school to the summit of its 
prosperity.** 

Not only did holy men of God devote much 
of their time to the instruction of the rising 
generation, and of converts from paganism, but 



158 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



many of the fathers felt so deeply interested in 
their instruction that they composed numerous 
treatises to be used explicitly in teaching them. 
The learned Dr. Coleman, in his " Antiquities of 
the Christian Church," gives us very interesting 
information in regard to the reasons which led 
to the institution of the order of catechumens, 
the age at which they were admitted, the term 
ot instruction, the different classes into which 
they were divided, the mode of admission, etc. 
At first the purity of the Church was guarded 
by men who possessed the miraculous gift of 
discerning spirits ; but, after this gift had been 
withdrawn, it became unsafe, immediately and 
as soon as they avowed their faith, to admit 
candidates from among the heathen into the 
fellowship of the Church. Multitudes who pro- 
fessed to be believers, when temptations and 
persecutions arose, went back to their former 
mode of life. In order to diminish, and, if pos- 
sible, to prevent such apostacies, the Rulers of 
the Church adopted the plan of deferring the 
admission of converts until reasonable evidence 
was obtained of their fitness in point of knowl- 
edge and sincerity, to be enrolled in the ranks 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS, 159 



of the disciples. They not only continued the 
applicants for Church membership in a state of 
probation for a limited time, but they instituted 
schools, especially for their instruction, and ap- 
pointed catechists over them. In process of 
time these catechetical schools became numer- 
ous, and proved of great service to the Church, 
and some of them became famous. 

There was no specific rule respecting the age 
in which Jewish and heathen converts were re- 
ceived as catechumens. History informs us 
that the greater part were persons of adult age. 
As to the time which the catechumens should 
spend in that relation it varied according to the 
usages of the Churches. It also depended upon 
the proficiency of each, individually. There 
was no essential rule by which the converts 
were classified. Some writers give but two 
classes, others three, and others four. " The 
gradations of improvement were particularly 
observed. The age and sex and circumstances 
of the catechumens were also duly regarded, 
men of age and rank not being classed with 
children of twelve or thirteen years of age." 

As soon as one expressed his desire and reso- 



1 66 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS, 

lution to embrace the religion of Jesus, he was 
trained, by a regular course of catechetical in- 
struction in private, to a knowledge of the lead- 
ing doctrines and duties of the gospel ; and, 
after this private instruction, "he was subjected 
to frequent and minute examinations in public 
on every branch of his religious education. If 
approved, he was forthwith instructed in some 
of the sublimer points of Christianity which -had 
hitherto been withheld from him — such as the 
doctrine of the Trinity, the union of the divine 
and human natures in Christ, the influences of 
the Spirit, and the way in which a participation 
of the symbols of a Saviour's love gives spirit- 
ual nourishment to the soul. He was enjoined 
to commit to memory the creed as a formula, 
which embodied, in a small compass, all the 
grand articles of revealed truth, which it had been 
the object of his protracted discipline to teach 
him. For twenty successive days he continued 
a course of partial fasting, during which he had 
daily interviews with his minister, who, in pri- 
vate, and secluded from the presence of every 
other observer, endeavored, by serious discourse, 
to impress his mind with a sense of the impor- 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. l6l 

tant step he was about to take, and more especi- 
ally prayed with him that he might be delivered 
from any evil spirit that had possession of his 
heart, and be enabled to consecrate himself a 
living sacrifice to God and to the Saviour. 
Such was the discipline of the catechumens — 
a discipline to which all ranks and descriptions 
of men, who were desirous of being admitted 
into the bosom of the Church, were in primitive 
times indiscriminately subjected." 

Thus, Christ's ministers and people in the 
early Church fully understood and practically 
recognized the fact that folded sheep needed to 
be watched and fed ; and that, in order to be 
prevented from straying, they needed to be im- 
bued with sound doctrine. Classes of instruc- 
tion for converts and others, after the primitive 
model, would doubtless be found exceedingly 
valuable to the Church in our own times. 

During the centuries in which darkness over- 
spread the earth, and people were deprived of 
the Holy Scriptures, whatever books of in- 
struction were prepared for the ignorant, with 
scarcely an exception related to nothing more 
important than legends, rosaries, feasts, and 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



relics. The Waldenses, however, had, during 
that period, their catechism, embodying, it is 
needless to say, nothing so trifling and worth- 
less, but solid scriptural instruction. 

If the leaders and teachers in the primitive 
Church, including some of the greatest minds 
belonging to her, held the business of catecheti- 
cal instruction in the highest estimation, it was 
also relied upon by the Reformers of the six- 
teenth century as the great means of guarding 
and extending the truth, and of establishing the 
true religion in the world. They regarded the 
very existence of Protestantism as depending 
on it. They could not find words to express 
how their spirits w r ere stirred within them by 
the prevalent ignorance, and they clearly per- 
ceived the necessity of immediately beginning 
the work of religiously training the young, and 
that, after a regular form. Nor did they soon 
desist from their labors. The preparation of 
catechisms commanded a large part of their 
time. The example of the first and principal 
reformers, Luther and Calvin, led to the com- 
position of a multitude of catechisms by their 
followers. So successful were the servants of 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS, 



163 



God of the Reformation era, in spreading, in 
this form, the new doctrine, that the Romanists 
were alarmed, and were compelled, in self-de- 
fence, to resort to the same method. Were 
catechetical history the theme of this chapter, 
it would here be in place to speak of the origin 
of the excellent Heidelberg Catechism, which 
has been more extensively used than any one 
composed by the Reformers. 

The Larger and Shorter Catechisms of the 
Westminster Assembly of Divines, are also rec- 
ognized by a large body of Christians as con- 
taining the exact doctrines of the Reformation, 
as these are deduced from the Bible. " Never/* 
says a writer, speaking of the labors of the men 
composing the Westminster Assembly, " were 
so much time and toil and learning bestowed 
on documents of the same compass. The 
Shorter Catechism, in particular, maybe consid- 
ered as one of the most complete and accurate 
summaries of divine truth ever couched in un- 
inspired language. It consists not of argu- 
ments, but of lucid statements, and comprehen- 
sive definitions of truth, and no one who has 
not minutely analyzed and expounded them, 



164 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 

can be at all aware of the logical precision, and 
the symmetry, and withal the seriousness and 
unction of these statements. The principles of 
moral and religious truth contained in that sub- 
lime symbol, when once embedded in the mind, 
enlarge, sustain, and illuminate it for all time." 
The Church's best and wisest teachers, both of 
former times and in our own day, have ever 
dwelt upon the importance of requiring those 
under a course of religious instruction to com- 
mit to memory a set form. " The popular and 
slovenly method is, to ask a multitude of ques- 
tions to be answered in the pupil's own words. 
The basis of every science, however, as a sub- 
ject of teaching, is laid in concise and exact 
definitions, and, as the language of these defi- 
nitions cannot be altered without some loss, so 
the only safe method of beginning, is to charge 
the memory of the learner with the very words 
of such definitions. This is equally true of syn- 
tax, geometry, physics, metaphysics, and theo- 
logy. The way of discovering truth is not al- 
ways the way of inculcating it. All first lines 
of instruction must proceed upon authority ; 
the truth must be given as dogma. In a word, 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



165 



though we arrive at principles analytically, we 
teach them synthetically. Hence, it is not a 
traditionary but a most philosophic method to 
demand the accurate learning by rote of cate- 
chetical forms. " 

At the regular monthly meeting of the New 
England Historic-Genealogical Society, held 
Dec. 4, 1878, a paper was read by Dr. Dorus 
Clarke, entitled " Saying the Catechism Sev- 
enty-five Years ago, and the Historical Results." 
From this paper we make the following quota- 
tion : 

" I desire, in this presence, to acknowledge 
my deep obligations to my parents, who, long 
since, as I trust, ' passed into the skies/ for 
their fidelity in requiring me, much against my 
will, to commit to memory the Assembly's 
Catechism, and to say it six or seven years in 
succession in the old meeting-house in West- 
hampton, amid tremblings and agitations I can 
never cease to remember. The Catechism 
formed a part of the curriculum of all the com- 
mon schools in that town for half a century, and 
was as thoroughly taught, and as regularly re- 
cited there, as Webster's Spelling-Book, or 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



Murray's English Grammar. It was as truly a 
classic as any other book. It was taught every- 
where — in the family, in the school, and in the 
Church — indeed, it was the principal intellect- 
ual and religious pabulum of the people. We 
had it for breakfast, and we had it for dinner, 
and we had it for supper. The entire town was 
saturated with its doctrines, and it is almost as 
much so at the present day. The people could 
not, of course, descend into the profound 
depths of the metaphysics of theology, but 
they thoroughly understood the system which 
was held by the fathers of New England. The 
practice of instructing the children thoroughly 
in the Catechism was very general throughout 
New England for a century and a half after the 
arrival of "The Mayflower/' Judge Sewall, in 
the first volume of his "Diary," just published 
by the Massachusetts Historical Society, speaks 
of a certain Sabbath, which, in the Old South 
Church in this city, was called " The Catechis- 
ing Day" and of his wearing a new article of 
clothing in honor of that specially important 
custom. But I believe that that excellent prac- 
tice, was nowhere so thoroughly carried out as 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 1 67 



it was in Western Massachusetts. That was 
largely owing to the transcendent influence of 
Jonathan Edwards — clarum et venerabile no- 
men — who was looked up to by the ministers 
in Boston and Scotland as the oracle in all 
metaphysical and theological matters. His in- 
fluence in Northampton and Stockbridge, and 
in the regions round about, is visible to-day in 
the peculiar moral and religious grain of the 

people The Catechism was required, 

by the public sentiment of the town, to be per- 
fectly committed to memory, and recited in the 
meeting-house by all the children and youth 
between the ages of eight and fifteen. These 
public recitations were held on three different 
Sabbaths in the summer of every year, with, 
perhaps, a fortnight intervening between each 
of them, to allow sufficient time for the children 
to commit to memory the division assigned. 
All the children in the town, dressed in their 
Sabbath-day clothes, were arranged shoulder 
to shoulder, the boys on the one side, and 
the girls on the other of the broad aisle — begin- 
ning at the deacon's seat beneath the pulpit, 
and extending down that aisle, and round 



l68 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



through the side aisles as far as was necessary. 
The parents crowded the pews and galleries, 
tremblingly anxious that their little ones might 
acquit themselves well. Father Hale, standing 
in the pulpit, put out the questions to the chil- 
dren in order ; and each one, when the ques- 
tion came to him, was expected to wheel out 
of the line, d la militaire, into the broad aisle, 
and face the minister, and make his very best 
obeisance, and answer the question put to him 
without the slightest mistake. To be told, that 
is, to be prompted or corrected by the minis- 
ter, was not a thing to be permitted by any 
child who expected thereafter to have any 
reputation in that town for good scholarship. 
In this manner the three divisions of the Cate- 
chism were successively recited, .... This 
system of thorough, religious training continued 
through the lifetime of nearly two generations, 
and, therefore, long enough fairly to test its 
real influence upon human character and life — 
long enough to determine, historically, what 
were its legitimate effects upon individuals and 
upon society. I know it is difficult to ascer- 
tain precisely all the influences, open and se- 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 1 69 

cret, remote and proximate, which form the 
web and the woof of individual and municipal 
character ; but in this case those formative fac- 
tors were so immediate and so obvious, that 
there is little room to doubt what they were^ 
Indeed, there is no more reason to doubt what 
they were, than there is to question the veracity 
of the multiplication table, or the excellence of 
the Ten Commandments. The general result 
was, and still is, that sobriety, large intelli- 
gence, sound morality, and unfeigned piety, 
exist there to a wider extent than in any other 
community of equal size within the limits of 
my acquaintance. Revivals of religion have 
been of great frequency, purity, and power ; 
and to-day more than one-third of the popula- 
tion, all told, are members of that Congrega- 
tional Church. Nine-tenths of the inhabitants 
are regular attendants on public worship. . . . 
I have resided in that town sixteen years, in 
Williamstown four years, in Andover three 
years, in Blandford twelve years, in Springfield 
six years, and in Boston and its vicinity thirty- 
seven years, and have therefore had some op- 
portunities to form an intelligent judgment of 
8 



I70 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



the relative condition, moral and religious, of 
different parts of this Commonwealth ; and I 
say it 'without fear or favor, or hope of re- 
ward : ' I say it with no invidious spirit what- 
ever ; I say it simply because historic verity 
peremptorily requires that it should be said — 
that I have nowhere found, in these communi- 
ties generally, such profound reverence for the 
name of JEHOVAH, the Infinite and Personal 
GOD ; such unquestioning faith in the divine 
authority of the Holy Scriptures ; such devout 
and conscientious observance of the Sabbath ; 
such habitual practice of family prayer ; such 
respect for an oath in a court of justice ; such 
anxiety for revivals of religion; such serious 
determination to enter into the kingdom of 
heaven ; and such deep conviction that it never 
can be reached, except by repentance for sin, 
and faith in a crucified Redeemer, as I have 
seen in that town. That the moral and relig- 
ious condition of things there is not what it 
should be, is unquestionably true ; but that it 
is, on the whole, better, yes, much better, than 
that in any other municipality on the face of the 
earth, which has not been similarly educated, is 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



171 



my honest belief. And, if this be true, this 
superior Christian tone of society must have 
had an adequate cause ; and it is our duty, as 
members of this Historical Society, to ascertain 
that cause, and let it be known for the informa- 
tion and imitation of the world. That cause- 
so far as I am able to trace effects back to their 
causes— can be found, not in the local position 
of that town, not in its scenery, not in its pe- 
culiarly favorable situation for the prosecution 
of any of the arts of life, not in the wealth cre- 
ated by great manufacturing industries, but in 
its more thorough indoctrination, from its set- 
tlement down to the present day, in the great 
truths of the Bible, creating public sentiment, 
permeating domestic life, giving vigor to con- 
science, converting men to Christ, and impreg- 
nating society, through all its ramifications, 
with a profounder sense of moral obligation.'' 

The Catechism is now made in our Church 
a part of the curriculum of Sabbath-school in- 
struction, and this is well, provided it is also re- 
cited at other times than in the Sabbath-school, 
To commit it to memory without incessantly re- 
viewing it, is not to become sufficiently familiar 



172 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 

with it. In order that its definitions may make 
the deepest impression on the mind, they must 
be repeated again and again, and that with 
punctilious accuracy through a long series of 
years. It is only thus that the great truths of 
the Catechism can be deeply " imbedded " in 
our children's minds, or wrought, as it were, 
into their very texture. It is absurd to object 
to the accurate learning of catechetical forms 
by rote. Who will pretend to deny the truth 
of the statement of the writer just now quoted, 
that All first lines of instruction mast proceed 
upon authority f But we shall not pursue the 
subject further, as to give the history of cate- 
chizing is no part of the purpose of this little 
book. 

The ignorant and uncared for, abound wher- 
ever the Church is planted, and there is a sense 
in which they all belong to her.* They belong 



* It is very much owing to the unfaithfulness of God's peo- 
ple that the number of persons ignorant of the teachings of the 
Bible, though living in Christian communities, is so great. 
Those who have read the account given by Dr. Spencer, in his 
" Pastor's Sketches," of the conversion, on her death-bed, of the 
Welsh woman's young tenant, may remember how feelingly he 



THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



173 



to her to instruct and train for heaven. This 
has been assumed in what has been said in this 
concluding chapter. But it is chiefly for the 
purpose of enlisting sympathy and aid in behalf 
of converts, that these pages have been written. 
We have seen that there are many encourage- 
ments to engage in the work of aiding them. 
The number of new disciples in the world is at 
all times very great. Perhaps an hour does not 
pass in which souls somewhere are not regener- 
ated by the Holy Spirit. It is astonishing that 
these are not more cared for by God's people. 
To guard, cherish, and feed them is one of the 
ends for which the Church has been organized. 

deplores the shocking unfaithfulness to this young woman's soul, 
of those who had been long her intimate associates. " What a 
lesson of reproof to Christians, " he says, u that this woman, 
living for twenty years among them, and in the sight of five or 
six Christian churches, should never have been inside of a 
church in her life, and that nobody asked her to go. Year after 
year she was in habits of intimacy with those who belonged in 
Christian families; she associated with children of Christian 
parents and yet she had never read the Bible — she never was ex- 
horted to seek the Lord ! And probably she would have died 
as she had lived had not divine Providence sent her to be the 
tenant of the 4 old lady 9 who loved her so well." 



174 THE SAVIOUR'S CONVERTS. 



Christ has not only enjoined it upon His Church 
to disciple all nations, but to make His converts, 
whom He so much loves, worthy, and strong, 
and useful disciples. No plan employed by the 
Church to make them such, however wisely de- 
vised, can be of the least avail, unless believers, 
as individuals, feel a deeper interest in them and 
exert themselves more for their good. What 
can be of greater importance to converts than 
that they should start aright. May it not be 
truthfully said of most of them that they will be 
through life, what they are during their first 
months of profession. "The conversion of a 
man is only the first step in a heavenly course — 
is only the entrance at the wicket gate, as Bun- 
yan puts it, with all the difficulties, perils, and 
conflicts of the pilgrimage itself yet before him." 
Remember that a powerful means of benefiting 
converts is to pray for them. Intercede for 
them, therefore, daily during the remainder of 
your life. 



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essays, which are as sweet as they are simple, and as solid as they are 
unpretentious."— The Living Church. 



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by 

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The 

Conflict of Christianity 

WITH HEATHENISM. 

By DR. GERHARD UHLHORN. 

TRANSLATED BY 
PROF. EGBERT C. SMYTH and REV. C. J. H. ROPES. 

One Volume, Crown 8vo, $2. SO. 

This volume describes with extraordinary vividness and spirit the 
religious and moral condition of the Pagan world, the rise and spread 
of Christianity, its conflict with heathenism, and its final victory. There 
is no work that portrays the heroic age of the ancient church with equal 
spirit, elegance, and incisive power. The author has made thorough and 
independent study both of the early Christian literature and also of the 
contemporary records of classic heathenism. 



CRITICAL, NOTICES. 

11 It is easy to see why this volume is so highly esteemed. It is 
systematic, thorough, and concise. But its power is in the wide mental 
vision and well-balanced imagination of the author, which enable him to 
reconstruct the scenes of ancient history. An exceptional clearness and 
force mark his style." — Bosto?i Advertiser. 

" One might read many books without obtaining more than a fraction 
of the profitable information here conveyed ; and he might search a long 
time before finding one which would so thoroughly fix his attention and 
command his interest." — Phil. S. S. Times. 

"Dr. Uhlhorn has described the great conflict with the power of a 
master. His style is strong and attractive, his descriptions vivid and 
graphic, his illustrations highly colored, and his presentation of the subject 
earnest and effective." — Providence Journal. 

" The work is marked for its broad humanitarian views, its learning, 
and the wide discretion in selecting from the great field the points of 
deepest interest." — Chicago Inter-Ocean. 

"This is one of those clear, strong, thorough-going books which are 
a scholar's delight.'*— -Hartford Religious Herald. 

For sale by all booksellers, or sent post-paid upo?i receipt of 

•price, by 

CHARLES SCRIBNERS SONS, 

Nos. 743 and 745 Broadway, New York. 



Jfaillj anil I^La^ionalism. 

By Prof. GEORGE P. FISHER, D.D., 
Author of " The Beginnings of Christianity," The Reformation," Eta. 



One Volume, 12mo, Cloth, $1.25, 



" This valuable and timely volume discusses ably, trenchantly and 
decisively the subjects of which it treats. It contains within small limits 
a large amount of information and unanswerable reasoning. " — Presbyterian 
Banner. 

"The book is valuable as a discussion of the mysteries of faith and 
the characteristics of rationalism by one of the clearest writers and 
thinkers. ' ' — Washington Post. 

"The author deals with many of the questions of the day, and does 
so with a freshness and completeness quite admirable and attractive. ,, 
"—Presbyterian. 

" This singularly clear and catholic- spirited essay will command the 
attention of the theological world, for it is a searching inquiry into the 
very substance of Christian belief." — Hartford Courant. 

" This little volume may be regarded as virtually a primer of modern 
religious thought, which contains within its condensed pages rich materials 
that are not easily gathered from the great volumes of our theological 
authors. Alike in learning, style and power of descrimination, it is honor- 
able to the author and to his university, which does not urge the claims 
of science by slighting the worth of faith or philosophy." — N. Y. Times. 

u Topics of profound interest to the studious inquirer after truth are 
discussed by the author with his characteristic breadth of view, catholicity 
of judgment, affluence of learning, felicity of illustration, and force of 
reasoning. . . . His singular candor disarms the prepossessions of his 
opponents. . . . In these days of pretentious, shallow and garrulous 
scholarship, his learning is as noticeable for its solidity as for its compass.' 1 
— N. Y. Tribune. 



%* The above book for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent, j>re£aid, ujxm. 
receipt of price, by 

CHARLES SCRIBNERS SONS, Publishers, 

743 and 745 Broadway, New York. 



[Complete in Twenty-four Volumes 8vo. 



EangF's QoramFnfflFg, 

CRITICAL, DOCTRINAL, AND HOM I LETICAL. 
TR^^SL^VEEIE), ENLARGED, J^NJD EDITED 

BY 

PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D., 

PROFESSOR IN THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 



This is the most comprehensive and exhaustive Commentary on the whole 
Bible ever published in this or any other country. 

The German work, on which the English edition is based, is the product 
of about twenty distinguished Biblical scholars, of Germany, Holland, and 
Switzerland, and enjoys a high reputation and popularity wherever German 
theology is studied. 

The American edition is not a mere translation (although embracing the 
whole of the German), but, to a large extent, an original work ; about one- 
third of the matter being added, and the whole adapted to the wants of the 
English and American student. Its popularity and sale has been lately 
increasing in Great Britain. 

The press has been almost unanimous in its commendation of Lange's 
Commentary. It is generally regarded as being, on the whole, the most 
useful Commentary, especially for ministers and theological students — in 
which they are more likely to find what they desire than in any other. It is 
a complete treasury of Biblical knowledge, brought down to the latest date. 
It gives the results of careful, scholarly research ; yet in a form sufficiently 
popular for the use of intelligent laymen. The Homiletical department 
contains the best thoughts of the great divines and pulpit orators of all ages, 
on the texts explained, and supplies rich suggestions for sermons and Bible 
lectures. 

The following are some of the chief merits of this Commentary : 

1. It is orthodox and sound, without being sectarian or denominational. 
It fairly represents the exegetical and doctrinal consenstis of evangelical 
divines of the present age, and yet ignores none of the just claims of liberal 
scientific criticism. 

2. It is comprehensive and complete — giving in beautiful order the 
authorized English version with emendations, a digest of the Critical Appa- 
ratus, Exegetical Explanations, Doctrinal and Ethical Inferences and 
Reflections, and Homiletical and Practical Hints and Applications. 

. 3. It is the product of fifty American {besides twe?ity Eur ope a ?i) Scholars^ 
from the leading denominations and Theological institutions of the country. 
Professors in the Theological Seminaries of New York, Princeton, Andover, 
New Haven, Hartford, Cambridge, Rochester, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, 
Alleghany, Chicago, Madison, and other places, representing the Presbyte- 
rian, Episcopal, Congregational, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, and Reformed 
Churches, have contributed to this Commentary, and enriched it with the 
results of their special studies. It may, therefore, claim a national character 
more than any other work of the kind ever published in this country. 

8vo, per vol., in sheep, $6.50; in half calf, $7.30; cloth, $5.00. 



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THE BIBLE COMMENTARY 



ACCORDING TO THE AUTHORIZED VERSION, A.D.1611. 
With an Explanatory and Critical Commentary, and a Revision 
of the Translation. 

How Beady. Complete in 6 vols. Eoyal 8vo. Cloth, $5, 

THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

Edited by F. C. COOK, M.A., Canon of Exeter, Preacher at Lincoln's Inn, 
and Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen. 

Vol. I. — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. 

Vol II —Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, ist Kings. 

Vol. III.— 2d Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. 

Vol. IV.— Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. 

Vol'. V.— Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations. 

V 0L . VI.—Ezekiel, Daniel, The Minor Prophets. 

The want of a plain, Explanatory COMMENTARY ON THE BIBLE more com- 
plete and accurate than any accessible to English readers having ; beer i long felt by men of 
education, in 186, the SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMON* consulted some 
of the the Bishons as to the best way of supplying the deficiency ; and the ARCH- 
BISHOP OF YORK undertook to organize a plan for producing such a work, by the 
co-oneration of scho:ars selected for their biblical learning. - t 

The cn-eat object of this Commentary, of which the Old Testament is now completed, 
is to put the general reader in full possession of whatever information may be requisite to 
enable him to understand the Holy Scriptures, to give him, as far as possible, the same 
advantages as the scholar, and to supply him with satisfactory answers to objections 
restine upon misrepresentations of the text. m . 

It was decided to reprint, without alteration, the Authorized Version from the edition 
of 1611, with the marginal references and renderings. Special care has been taken to 
furnish in ail cases amended translations of passages proved to be incorrect m our version. 
The Comment is chiefly explanatory, presenting, in a concise and readable form, the 
results of learned investigations, carried on in this and other countries during the last 
half century. When fuller discussions of difficult passages or important subjects are 
necessary, they are placed at the end of the chapter, or of the volume. 

The'conduct of the work— as general Editor— has been entrusted to the Rev. *. C. 
Cook. M.A., Canon of Exeter, Preacher at Lincoln's Inn, and Chaplain m Ordinary to 

the ^ eI ^' rchb j sho of York< in consu i ta tion with the Regius Professors of Divinity of 
Oxford and Cambridge, advises with the general Editor upon questions arising during 
the progress of the work. 

IN" THE PRESS. 

THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Vol. I. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, (Now Ready.) 

Vol. II.— John and acts. (Now Ready.) 
Vol. III.— Epistles of St. Paul. 
Vol. IV.— Catholic Epistles and Revelations. 

The above looks far sale by all booksellers, or will be sent, post or ex/riti 
ikarges paid, upon receipt of the price by the publishers, 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 

743 and 745 Broadway, New Y^pk 



4m 



